VI 
PREFACE. 
The most important part of the present collection, however, 
was got together between 1838 and 1853 ; and the names of 
most of the best known ornithologists and collectors of that 
period appear on the labels as contributors to it, among whom 
Andersson, Baird, Blyth, Boys, Brandt, Gosse, Hodgson, Jerdon, 
Petherick, may be specially mentioned. 
The whole number of skins is 6006. About one-third of 
which, including those obtained by Strickland himself, and 
by his brother Algernon, may be assigned to the collectors 
themselves. The rest, including the specimens bought from 
Nathaniel Constantine Strickland in 1838 and 1850, were 
generally obtained from dealers in England and Scotland. 
Though the classification of Birds was a subject that, as his 
writings shew, constantly occupied Strickland’s attention, it 
is clear that up to the time of his sudden death his opinions 'on 
few if any points were matured. It is true that amongst his 
papers he left in MS. a comparatively complete catalogue of 
birds, extracted from the literature of ornithology, in which the 
various synonyms, and range of each species, as far as was then 
known, are elaborately set down. Each species is treated of on 
a separate slip of paper, and these slips are arranged in a certain 
order ; but it is obvious on examination that the arrangement 
was dictated merely by convenience and cannot be taken to 
indicate any definite opinions. 
This arrangement might have been used as Strickland’s 
system of classification, but a moment’s reflection shews the 
impropriety of publishing such a system as the one finally 
adopted by its author; for by doing so it is evident that 
Strickland would be supposed to have held views on many 
questions concerning which he never publicly expressed him- 
self. I therefore had to seek another classification, and I natu- 
rally inclined to follow that used in the Nomenclator Avium 
Neotropicalium, published in 1873 by Mr Sclater and myself, 
which has as its basis the system of Huxley. Into this classi- 
fication, which treats of South American birds only, I have 
