IV 
PREFACE. 
number of persons who turned their attention princi¬ 
pally to this one branch of Zoology was at any rate 
sufficiently great to justify an experiment which in a 
neighbouring country, and among a kindred nation, had 
succeeded so well. 
The meeting therefore broke up with the under¬ 
standing that in the following year the subject should 
be reconsidered. During the interval, communications, 
either personally or by letter, were freely kept up among 
those who had been present, as well as with others in¬ 
terested in the same study, in order that the different 
views which prevailed on the subject might be com¬ 
pared, and the project thus forwarded. 
In November 1858, the annual assemblage took place 
at Cambridge; and, after due consideration, it was deter¬ 
mined by those present that a Quarterly Magazine of 
General Ornithology should be established, that a limited 
subscription should be entered into to provide a fund 
for that purpose, and that the subscribers should form 
an ‘ Ornithological Union/ their number at present not 
to exceed twenty. 
The cooperation of several other gentlemen, who were 
not present at this meeting, was soon afterwards gladly 
given; and the list now printed of the members of the 
Union will show the names of those who may be con¬ 
sidered the original promoters of the undertaking. 
At present, thanks to the exertions of its friends, the 
prospects of ‘ The Ibis ’ are quite as satisfactory as were 
anticipated; but whether it can be continued, so as to 
