102 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



having been indebted to the kindness of Lord Tweeddale for 

 the opportunity of examining a series of five specimens of this 

 bird, I was struck with the considerable prolongation of the 

 hooked point of the upper mandible^ which appeared to me 

 to be proportionally greater than in the other species of this 

 genus. In one of these specimens this prolongation was so 

 remarkable as to remind me of the similar but still more 

 marked curvature and prolongation of the upper mandible 

 in Leptodon uncinatus of tropical America. 



Of the remaining species of the genus Spilornis {S. holo- 

 spilus, S. rufipectus, and S. sulamsis), I have nothing to add 

 to Mr. Sharpens remarks, except to observe that it seems to 

 me that S. sulamsis should, at most, be regarded only as a 

 subspecies of S. rufipectus, from which, judging by the speci- 

 mens of both preserved in the Norwich Museum, it only 

 differs, either in its immature or in its adult stage, by its 

 slightly smaller dimensions. 



[To be continued.] 



VIII. — Notices of recent Ornithological Publications. 



1. 'Transactions' of the New-Zealand Institute. 



Volume nine of the ' Transactions and Proceedings of the 

 New- Zealand Institute,' which we have just received, contains 

 the following five ornithological papers by Dr. Buller : — 



(1) '' On the Ornithology of New Zealand," p. 327. [Con- 

 tains notes on various species, and adds Diomedea cauta, 

 Gould, to the New-Zealand list.] 



(2) " On the Occurrence of the Royal Spoonbill [Platalea 

 regia)," p. 337. [Adds this Australian Spoonbill to the list.] 



(3) " Observations on a Species of Shag inhabiting Queen- 

 Charlotte Sound." [Relates to Phalacrocorax finschi, lately 

 described by Mr. Sharpe.] 



(4) " On a Tendency to Deformity in the Bill of Nestor 

 meridionalis.'^ 



(5) " On the Alleged Intercrossing of Ocydromus earli and 

 the Domestic Fowl." 



