Abstract
AS has been more than once remarked in our pages, it would require more than one man's lifetime to complete the Catalogue of Birds, if the rate at which the first four volumes were produced had to be continued. Mr. Bowdler Sharpe, who has written these first four volumes, was a young man when he commenced his task, but at the same rate of progress it would have required him to live nearly a hundred years to finish the Catalogue by himself. Dr. Giinther has therefore had to seek assistance from outside the walls of the Museum, and has engaged the services of Mr. Seebohm to bring out the fifth volume of the Catalogue, which contains a description of the family Turdidæ, containing the Thrushes and Warblers. As Mr. Seebohm has devoted several years to a study of this family, he possesses a special knowledge of his subject probably unequalled by any other ornithologist. It must be remembered that, as in the case of Dr. Giinther's Catalogue of Fishes, the Catalogue of Birds is not a mere list of specimens in the national collection, but is in reality a monographic résumé of the birds of the world. If we look through the first four volumes of this laborious work we shall find that not only are the species in the British Museum thoroughly described, but that species not included in the collection of that institution are also treated of, and the types of rare birds in Continental museums are fully described; showing that Mr. Sharpe was not content to work solely with the collection under his charge, but that he has compared his notes with the specimens in many of the museums of Europe, and has therefore done his utmost to make the Catalogue in every way complete. But if this is true of the first volumes, it is ten times more so in the case of the fifth, which now lies before us. On turning over its pages we see that Mr. Seebohm has not only visited European museums, but has even been to America for the purpose of examining types, and the result is that up to the date of publication his work must be as complete as personal labour and an unlimited expenditure of time and money could render it. Again, the author's well-known travels in various parts of Europe and Siberia have made him acquainted with the natural history of a number of the species described in his book and have given him a practical knowledge which must have stood him in good stead at every turn. It is not in this journal only that he will receive the meed due to his energy and perseverance, but he is sure to receive the gratitude of every ornithologist for a monograph of two such difficult families as the Thrushes and Warblers have always proved themselves to be.
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The British Museum Catalogue of Birds 1 . Nature 24, 239–241 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/024239c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/024239c0