246 Recent Ornitholugical Publications. 



who brought the living bird to England, and before depositing it 

 in the British Museum placed it in our unworthy hands for de- 

 scription, that the honour must be given ; and but for an acci- 

 dental mischance, its portrait would have long since appeared in 

 the Zoological ' Proceedings/ 



Though we must own that we have not read the three some- 

 what bulky volumes in which Baron J. W. von Miiller* records 

 his adventures in the United States of America, Canada, and 

 Mexico, we feel it a duty to our readers to point out the exist- 

 ence of the work, of which some of them perhaps might other- 

 wise never hear. This, too, is the more incumbent upon us 

 because the Baron's third volume (which, we believe, is pub- 

 lished separately with the title of ' Beitrage zur Geschichte, 

 Statistik und Zoologie von Mexico ') contains a systematic 

 catalogue of the Mexican Vertebrates, in which, as might be ex- 

 pected, the birds figure largely, 611 species being enumerated. 

 Of these, Trogon erythrunotus, Tachyphonus schlagintweiti, Melo- 

 spiza pectoralis, and Aimophila (lege Hamophila) tolteca are 

 described as new. The work is embellished with some very 

 pretty illustrations ; but of its literary qualities, for the reason 

 above given, we naturally abstain from giving any opinion, 

 though it would seem impossible that it should not contain 

 much that is of interest to those who occupy themselves with 

 the ornithology of the New World. 



Dr. Rudolph Dieck's treatise on the Sternum of Birds f, 

 though creditable enough for a maiden |efFort, would perhaps 

 hardly require notice here but for one of the theses maintained 

 by the author, " Sternum ad definiendum oscinum genus 

 optimum esse signum," a conclusion to which we cannot give 

 our general assent, since it is in the group to which the name 

 Oscines has been assigned that the greatest uniformity of sternal 

 structure is observable. We are also somewhat surprised to 



* Reisen in den Vereinigten Staaten, Canada und Mexico von Baron 

 J. W. VON MiJLLER. In drei Biinden. 8vo. Leipzig : 186^-5. 



t De Sterno Avium, dissertatio inauguralis quam &c. publice defendet 

 Auctor, RuDOLPHUS Dieck. Halis Saxonum. 8vo, pp. 31. [1865.] 



