EDITORIAL GLEANINGS.
The following extract from the Address of the Chairman, Dr. P.L. Sclater, on opening the Seventh Session of the British Ornithologists' Club, refers to the successful completion of a great conception:—
"As the Editors of 'The Ibis' have already remarked in their preface to the volume for the present year, one of the leading ornithological events of 1898 is the completion of the 'Catalogue of Birds.' The twenty-sixth volume of this work, prepared by Dr. Bowdler Sharpe and Mr. Ogilvie Grant, the only one required to finish the series, will. I am assured, be laid before the Trustees at their meeting on the 22nd inst., and be ready for issue very shortly afterwards. Thus, after a period of twenty-five years, this most important piece of ornithological work has been brought to a conclusion. No human product is perfect, and the Catalogue has been, and will be, the subject of many criticisms. One obvious defect in it is its want of uniformity, the various authors having been permitted, owing to the wise discretion of the authorities, very liberal opportunities for the expression of their own views in their respective portions, although a general adherence to one plan has been rightly insisted upon. But when the enormous amount of labour required for this work and the absolute necessity of employing more than one author upon such a huge task are considered, it will be obvious that greater uniformity was practically unattainable. In the case of the 'Catalogue of Reptiles and Batrachians,' where the series of specimens and species was not so large, the herpetologists are fortunate in having had the whole of the work performed upon a uniform system by the indefatigable energy of a single naturalist. The 'Catalogue of Birds,' as complete in twenty-seven volumes, gives us an account of 11,614 species of this Class of Vertebrates, divided into 2255 genera and 124 families. It has been prepared by eleven authors, all Members of the British Ornithologists' Union, and, with one exception, I believe (who is not a resident in England), now or formerly Members of this Club. I think it will be universally allowed that we have, in this case, a great and most useful undertaking brought to a successful conclusion."
We have received the Report of Trustees for the year 1897 of the Australian Museum, Sydney. Commercial prosperity reacts in a beneficial manner on scientific institutions. There must be a revenue to make
