A well known and highly productive (over 1400 publications) ornithologist in his own day, Sclater is remembered today primarily for his 1858 paper setting out the faunal regions classification of zoogeography later adopted by Alfred Russel Wallace. The system is still in common use today. His most lasting ornithological work is probably the four volumes he contributed to the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum series, circa 1886-1891. Sclater worked on other natural history subjects (especially mammals) as well, but it should not be forgotten that he also had an impressive professional and administrative career, undoubtedly aided by his early training for (and practice of) the law. He was the founder and for many years the Editor of Ibis, a council member and then Secretary (for forty-three years!) of the Zoological Society of London, a member of more than forty professional societies at home and abroad, a council member of the Royal Society of London, and even for a time personal secretary to his older brother George Sclater-Booth (later Lord Basing), who had won a political appointment from Disraeli.