29G ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



Birds. 



In ornithology there lias been apparently an average de- 

 gree of activity. Many catalogues of species of different re- 

 gions and descriptions of a number of new species have been 

 published, but none, so far as we are aware, of sufficient 

 interest to be here particularized. The third volume of 

 Sharpe's " Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum ;" 

 parts of Gould's great illustrated works on " The Birds of 

 Asia" and "The Birds of New Guinea;" Sharpe's edition 

 of " The Birds of South Africa" by E. L. Layard ; Hartlaub's 

 "Birds of Madagascar and the Neighboring Islands" ("Die 

 Vogel Madagascars unci die benachbarten Inselgruppen ") ; 

 and the first of "A Monograph of the Bucerotida?, or Family 

 of the Hornbills," by D.G.Elliot, are among the most note- 

 worthy, either on account of extent or as good monographs. 



Avifauna of Madagascar. 



For many reasons one of the most interesting faunas of 

 earth is that of Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands. In 

 1S61 Dr. Hartlaub had published a small ornithological con- 

 tribution to the fauna of Madagascar; and last year he gave 

 the results of his own continued studies, and embodied as 

 well those of his numerous fellow-ornithologists, in a volume 

 of over 400 pages. It seems that there are now known as 

 inhabitants of the region in question 284 species: 220 occur 

 in Madagascar and 104 are peculiar to that island ; 44 are to 

 be found in the Comoro Islands, about 60 in each Mauritius 

 and Bourbon, and 25 in Rodriguez. "The individuality of 

 the fauna of Madagascar," says Dr. Hartlaub, " is so unique 

 that even that of New Zealand can hardly be compared with 

 it. Wallace's attempted parallel between Madagascar and 

 Africa and the Antilles and South America is, in our eyes, 

 sufficiently disproved by the occurrence in the Antilles of 

 Trochilidce, one of the most characteristic forms of South 

 America. But in Madagascar not a single one of the genera 

 most characteristic of Africa occurs. The originality of the 

 fauna is much too pronounced to allow Madagascar to be 

 treated of only as a ' sub-region ' or an ' aberrant part ' of 

 the Ethiopian region." From this conclusion (reproduced in 

 Nature) Professor Newton lias, however, dissented, and al- 



