/, i 
PREFACE. 
The last three numbers of this Journal (including 
the Supplement) of the past year, and the first two 
of the present, were edited by Mr. P. L. Sclater 
whilst I was absent from England for fourteen 
months. In relieving me of a duty that I must 
otherwise have relinquished, and adding it to his 
own manifold engagements, Mr. Sclater has evinced, 
were such token necessary, his unflagging zeal for 
the welfare of ‘ The Ibis/ for which the Members of 
the British Ornithologists’ Union, as well as myself, 
owe him our best thanks. 
It will be observed that the cc Index to the Orni¬ 
thological Literature,” appended to each of the pre¬ 
vious volumes of the Third Series of this Journal, 
has been omitted in the present. This has been done 
at the generally expressed wish of the Members of 
the Union. The change, I regret to say, involves 
a considerable hiatus in the record of current orni¬ 
thological literature between the commencement of 
1873 and the present time, which I have not seen 
my way to avoid. If what is past cannot be reme¬ 
died, it remains to me in future numbers to render 
as complete as possible in some other form this very 
essential portion of our Journal. 
OSBEBT S ALVIN, 
Editor. 
0 Tenterden Street, Hanover Square. 
September 1874. 
