14 NOTICES OF SERIALS. 



Part V. A.D. 1855. 

 (Besnard) Report on the progress of Mineralogy during the year 1854; with 

 a plate— pp. 84. Obituary — p. 85. 



Part VI. A.D. 1856. 

 (Besnard) Report on the progress of Mineralogy during the year 1854; with 

 two plates — pp. 64. 



Part VII. A.D. 1856. 

 (Muehle, Henry, Count von der) Monograph of the European Sylvias; with 

 four coloured plates in 4to. — pp. 152. A posthumous fragment of a work in 

 which the author, an enthusiastic votary of Ornithology, had purposed to give 

 figures of all the birds of Europe which had not been figured before, or only in 

 works so costly as to be inaccessible to the generality of students. The species 

 figured in the present part are Sylvia erythrogastra Gould, an old male; S. ery- 

 thronota Eversm., an old male, and a young bird in a transition stage of plu- 

 mage ; S. olivetorum Strickl., with nest and eggs, figured before only in Goulds' 

 Birds of Europe ; elaica Linderm., with nest and eggs, not before figured. 

 Thienemann has given a description and figures of the nest and eggs of both 

 these species, differing in many points, according to Muehle, from the authentic 

 specimens brought from Greece by himself. The remaining figures represent 

 Sylcia scita Eversm.; S. melanopogon Temrn.; S. cisticota Temm., with a 

 doubtful variety; and S. cetli Marrn. After a discussion of the arrangements 

 of the group proposed by preceding authors, he divides it into seven sections ; 

 I. Ruticillffi, Redstarts ; tithy3, erythrogastra, phosnicura : II. Humicolse, Ground 

 Warblers ; suecica, calliope, luscinia, philomela, galactodes, rubecula : III. 

 Philacanthae, Grass Warblers ; nisoria, orphea, atricapilla, hortensis, cinerea, 

 curruca : IV. Dumeticolse, Bush Warblers ; ruppellii, subalpina, melanocephala, 

 conspicillata, provincialis, sarda : V. Phyllopseustse, Leaf Warblers ; sibilatrix, 

 trochilus, rufa, bonellii : VI. Polyglottae, Mockers ; olivetorum, elaica, hypolais : 

 VII. Calamodytae, Reed Warblers; palustris, arundinacea, turdina, scita, plirag- 

 mitis, aquatica, melanopogon, cisticola, cetti, luscinioides, flaviatilis, locustella. 

 Some of these sections include certain stronglv marked fonoas, which might be 

 separated, but the groups resulting are too poorly represented in the European 

 Fauna to make this necessary. In a supplement, the author has discussed the 

 pretensions of some species which figure in the catalogues of European birds ; 

 but of which either the specific distinction or the European habitat seems 

 questionable. These are — Erithacus mousseri Olph-Gall. ; Cyaoecula suecica, 

 wolfii, leucocyana, Naumann; S. familiaris Menetr.; S. rubricapilla Landbeck, 

 (S. naumanni Muller;) S. ochrogenion Linderm.; S. icterina Temm. (S. angus- 

 ticauda Gerbes?), S. sylvestris Meissner ; S. horticola Naum. (Calamoherpe ar- 

 bustorum, pinetorum, Brehm) ; S. nigrifrons, albifrons, Bechstein ; S. fiuticola 

 Naum. ; S. lanceolata Temm. ; Motacilla certhiola Pallas. The Appendix con- 

 tains a notice by Jaeckel of a Ficedula icterina shot in the Steigerwald in Upper 

 Franconia; and a communication from Blasius, on the distinctive characters cf 

 this species, and F. trochilus, rufa, and sibilatrix. 



Bericht UBER DIE (ESTERREICHISCHE Literatur der Zoologie, Botanik, und 

 Pal-eontologie u. s. w. Report on the Works on Zoology, Botany, 

 and Paleontology that have appeared in Austria during the years 1850, 

 1851, 1852,1853; published by the Zoological and Botanical Association of 

 Vienna. 8vo. Vienna. 1855. 



A very useful digest, such as we should wish to have of the progress of Natural 

 History in our own country also, and in other countries of Europe. The main 

 object is to present in one view the advances in the study of the Fauna and Flora 

 of the Austrian Empire, by means of the fullest extracts of all that has appeared 

 on these subjects in publications not devoted to Natural History, and shorter 

 abstracts of articles in works belonging to the science ; the diagnoses of the new 



