Memorial.

To Elliott Coues, Esquire, Assistant Surgeon, United States’ Army.

We, the undersigned, beg leave to express our high appreciation of the ‘Bibliographical Appendix’ to your work, ‘Birds of the Colorado Valley,’ being No. 11 of the Miscellaneous Publications of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories, under the charge of Dr. Hayden.² And at the same time we wish to place on record our gratitude to that gentleman, and to the authorities of the Department to which you are attached, for the liberality they have shown in granting you permission to stay at Washington for the completion of this and other important works upon which you have now been so long and so usefully engaged.

The want of indexes to the ever increasing mass of Zoological literature has long been felt by all workers in every department of that science; but the enormous labor of compilation has hitherto deterred many from undertaking a task so appalling. It is with no small satisfaction that we recognize your readiness to devote yourself to work of this nature. Moreover, we feel justified in hoping that should the instalment now published in the volume above named be enlarged in a similar manner so as to include a complete Bibliography of Ornithology, this branch of science will possess an index to its writings perhaps more complete as to its scope and contents than any kindred subject of similar extent.

An undertaking of this sort is beset with formidable difficulties; not only is its extent enormous, and the works relating to the subject are widely scattered through many libraries, public and private: but the qual⁠⟨⁠i⁠⟩⁠fications of a good bibliographer are not easily to be found united in one person. His application and industry must be untiring, and he must be thoroughly conversant with the art of Bibliography. In addition to these requirements, in a case like the present, an equally thorough knowledge of the subject under consideration is indispensable. You happily combine all these qualifications; your industry has long been approved, your knowledge of books is evident from what you have now put before us, your knowledge of Ornithology has long been known to us. We can well believe that the libraries of your own country are better stored than any others with works relating to the Ornithology of North America, and that therefore the ‘List of Faunal Publications relating to North American Ornithology’ could be nowhere better prepared than in Washington; but when the ornithological literature of the whole world has to be examined, it seems to us almost indispensable that the older libraries of Europe, and especially of England, France, Italy, Germany and Holland, should be consulted, if one of the chief merits of your work is to be maintained, viz:—the consultation at first hand by yourself of every work mentioned therein.

This brings us to one of the chief objects of this memorial, which is to express our sincere hope that time and means will be found you to prosecute in Europe the great undertaking you have commenced so well, and bring it to a successful conclusion. Should the authorities who preside over the Department to which you belong—and especially the Surgeon-General of the United States Army³—who have hitherto so liberally granted you facilities for the scientific work you have performed, be disposed to furnish you with the means of perfecting your undertaking, we are convinced that it will reflect great credit to them and the country to which you belong. We on our part, so far as England is concerned, are ready not only to welcome a brother Ornithologist, but also to render you every assistance in our power.

(Signed.) W. H. Flower, F.R.S., &c., President of the Zoological Society of London.

T. H. Huxley, Sec. R. S.

Charles Darwin, F.R.S.

St. Geo. Mivart, F.R.S., Sec. L. S.

Alfred R. Wallace.

A. Guenther,⁴ F.R.S., Keeper of the Department of Zoology, British Museum.

Philip Lutley Sclater, M.A., Ph. Dr., F.R.S., Secretary to the Zoological Society of London.

Alfred Newton, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., Professor of Zoology in the University of Cambridge.

H. B. Tristram, F.R.S.

Osbert Salvin, M.A., F.R.S., Editor of ‘The Ibis.’

[And twenty-eight others.]