PREFACE. 
The preparation of the Index to the ^Bulletin’ is the duty 
of the (I had nearly written “ unfortunate Editor, because 
it forms a kind of annual “ holiday task for him. The index 
to our tenth volume of the ‘Bulletin^ has certainly proved 
heavier than any of its predecessors, by reason of the greater 
number of quotations which the Editor has had to record, but 
it has, at the same time, been very satisfactory to him to note 
the increase in the number of contributions to our journal. 
The exhibition of specimens illustrating the colour-varia- 
tions of birds was in every respect a very remarkable one, 
mainly due to the extraordinary series which our esteemed 
member, the Hon, Walter Rothschild, M.P., transported from 
his Museum at Tring ; while many other members of the Club 
contributed from their private collections. The result was 
one of the most interesting exhibitions ever presented to the 
notice of a Scientific Society. 
The memory of the pleasant evenings which the members 
of the Club have spent together, and of the solid work which 
has been a feature of our Eighth Session, is saddened by the 
decease of several of our friends. The loss of such energetic 
workers as St. George Mivart, John Cordeaux, and T. J. Monk 
is not only felt by the Club as a Scientific Institution, but 
it has taken away from some of the older members some 
very sincere friends and companions. The fortune of 
war also has deprived us of two excellent ornithologists. 
Dr. A. C. Stark and Colonel H. P. Northcott, The former 
was struck down by a Boer shell in Ladysmith, as he was 
quietly smoking a cigarette at 12 o^clock at night, and his 
