  We present optical spectroscopy of 71 photometric candidate low-mass members
of the cluster associated with Sigma Orionis. Thirty-five of these are found to
pass the lithium test and hence are confirmed as true cluster members, covering
a mass range of <0.055-0.3M_{sun}, assuming a mean cluster age of <5 Myr. We
find evidence for an age spread on the (I, I-J) colour magnitude diagram,
members appearing to lie in the range 1-7 Myr. There are, however, a
significant fraction of candidates that are non-members, including some
previously identified as members based on photometry alone. We see some
evidence that the ratio of spectroscopically confirmed members to photometric
candidates decreases with brightness and mass. This highlights the importance
of spectroscopy in determining the true initial mass-function.
