ENT RODY.C Tle N: Y

resulted in the publication of a list of Philippine birds by Dr. von Martens, which, however, was
not very satisfactory; but the explorations of Dr. A. B. Meyer were of more enduring importance,
as it was principally on his collections that the excellent memoir on the Birds cf the Philippine
Archipelago by the Marquis of T'weeddale was founded. Following closely upon this, we ourselves
published a list of the birds obtained by Dr. Steere, who visited many of the islands on which no
naturalist had before set foot, and whose collections contained a large number of new forms. Perhaps
the most interesting result of Dr. Steere’s expedition was the demonstration that the Philippine Island
of Palawan possessed a distinct Bornean and, therefore, Malayan element—a result which has been
amply confirmed by Mr. Alfred Everett in the same island. The latter naturalist was sent by Lord
Tweeddale; and his expedition has proved to be one of the most important ever undertaken in the
Indian region. Like Dr. Steere he also visited many islands not before trodden by an_ ornithologist,
and obtained a large number of beautiful novelties.

Such is a brief retrospect, as far as our experience allows us to make it, of the progress of oriental
ornithology since the year 1850, when Mr. Gould issued his first part. Every one must admit that
it would be far easier now to attempt such a work, although so vast is the extent of the Indian
region that each year records a large increase in our knowledge of Asiatic birds. It would almost seem
as if we had now once more reached a period of quiescence, such as supervened upon the publication
of Horsfield and Moore’s ‘ Catalogue,’ and Jerdon’s ‘Birds of India.’ Let us hope that this is not
the case, and that Mr. Hume, who has done so much for the increase of our knowledge of Indian
birds, will not allow his pen to remain dry, that Colonel Godwin-Austen will, on the termination of
his present important work on Mollusca, be induced to give us a connected catalogue of the birds
of North-eastern Bengal, that Captain Wardlaw Ramsay will publish a catalogue of the Tweeddale
collection, and that Mr. Blanford will not allow his retirement from India to interfere with the

publication of his useful works on the zoology of that portion of the globe.

R. BOWDLER SHARPE.