At a meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society (North China Branch), in the lecture hall, on Thursday, Mr Sowerby, F2z.s., F.RG.S., gave a most interesting lecture on the subject. on which he is one of the leading authorities of the day—'The Navural History of China." Mr. Sowerby dealt very fully with the subject and it is unfortunately only possible at present to publish a brief summary.
He said there undoubtedly remains @ vast amount of work to be done before it can be said that even the vertebrates of China are all known, whilst a much greater time must elapse before the invertebrate fauna have been thoroughly explored. Nevertheless, it is utterly erroneous, not to say unfair to past workers in this wide field of research, to say, as has been done recently, that the natural history of China is practically unknown. To certain groups—mostly orders or families of invertebrates—the Chinese representatives are unknown, but the knowledge of others, birds, for instance, is actually near. ing completion.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.