Recent Ornithological Publications. 399 



new Accipitrine birds, both of which he refers to the " subgenus" 

 Herpetotheres. One of these is Astur mirandollei, from Dutch 

 Guiana; the other Astur spectabilis, from Elmina, on the Gold 

 Coast. Influenced, no doubt, by preconceived ideas as to the 

 distribution of species, we can hardly believe that the latter bird, 

 of which a figure is given (pi. 6), can really belong to the Ame- 

 rican form Herpetotheres. But what is it ? We know of nothing 

 like it. 



Mr. J. P. van Wicklevoort Crommelin (p. 172) gives a notice 

 of the species of Ducks that visit or reside in Holland, accom- 

 panied by some general observations on the variations of plumage 

 in this group of birds ; and the same gentleman, a few pages 

 later (p. 217), contributes an article on Syrrlwptes paradoxus, 

 which Mr. Newton has already alluded to {antea, p. 185 et seq.). 



4. Italian Publications. 



Professor Bianconi, of the University of Bologna, has com- 

 menced a series of papers, in the ' Memoirs of the Academy of 

 Sciences' of that city, on the tarso-metatarsus of birds, with 

 the view of ascertaining the systematic position of the extinct 

 j^pyornis, of which the only bones hitherto found are two por- 

 tions of the inferior extremities of the tarso-metatarsus. Pro- 

 fessor Bianconi's first memoir examines the structure of this 

 bone in the Scansores and Grallse *. 



The second volume of the Italian ' Archivio per la Zoologia, 

 I'Anatomia e la Fisiologia,' published at Modena, contains an 

 article, by Professor F. de Filippi, on new or little-known Verte- 

 brates discovered by him during a recent expedition into Persiaf. 

 Professor Filippi was attached, along with Professor Lessona and 

 the Marchese Giacomo Doria, as scientific observer to an embassy 

 sent by the Italian Government, in 1862, to the court of Persia. 

 The expedition set out from Genoa on the 21st of April, and 



* Studii sul Tarso-metatarso degli Uccelli, ed in particolave su qucllo 

 dell' Epyornis rnaximus. Bologna, 1863. 



-t" Nuove o poco note specie di Aniraali Veitebrati raccolte in un viairgio 

 in Persia neir estate dell' anno 1862, per F. de Filip|)i (Arch. p. 1. Zoolog. 

 ii. p. 377 ; 18 pp.). 



