XU 
Yol. X.] 
will be of great importance as comprising all the available 
information respecting tins little-known and most interesting 
group of birds, to wbicb the author has devoted particular 
care and attention. I am also pleased to be ai)le to say 
that the Trustees of the British Museum have authorized 
Mr. E.AV. Oates to proceed with the printing of his Catalogue 
of their uurivalled. collection of Birds’-eggs, and that the first 
volume of it will shortly be ready. 
As regards the expeditions to foreign countries which 
have led, or are likely to lead, to good ornithological results, 
I wish to call special attention to Mr. Boyd Alexander’s 
journey up the Zambesi, which has led to most interesting 
additions to our knowledge of the avifauna of the district 
traversed by him. The first portion of Mr. Alexander’s 
account of liis collection lias ah’eady appeared in ‘ The Ibis,’ 
and the second and final jiortions will be given in the suc- 
ceeding numbers of our Journal. Of hardly less importance 
are the recent contributions of Messrs. Rickett, Styan, and 
La Touche to the avifauna of the Chinese province of Fohkien, 
which are now in process of publication in the same periodical. 
They show how much there is still to be done in the little- 
known hill-regions of China, Avhen the latter can be safely 
penetrated by European naturalists. 
The expedition made by Mr. W. B. Ogilvie Grant and 
Dr. H. O. Eorbes to Sokotra and the previously unvisited 
island of Ab-dcl-Kuri has resulted in a large increase in our 
knowledge of the zoology and botany of these localities, 
where seven new species of birds were discovered. A full 
account of the collections made, wdth many coloured plates 
of the new species, will be shortly issued by the Committee 
of the Liverpool Museum. 
Another imperfectly-known district, wdiich has lately been 
very successfully traversed, is the interior of the British 
Protectorate of Aden, into whieh Messrs. A. Blayney 
Percival and W. Dodson have lately made an expedition. 
This has unfortunately cost the life of Mr. Dodson (a most 
promising collector, and the younger brother of Mr. E. 
Dodson, the naturalist who accompanied Dr. Donaldson 
