256 Recently jmblished Ornithological Works. 



species, especially the Petrels, that his observations have the 

 greater value, and, good as they are, they would be improved 

 by the insertion of dates. For instance, the very point that 

 we want to know Avith regard to the widely distributed Great 

 Shearwater, Puffinus major, is the time of year during which 

 it frequents the southern hemisphere; for we suspect it is 

 there that its breeding-places will eventually be discovered, 

 and we have great doubts with regard to its recorded breed- 

 ing off the southern coast of Greenland. At present the 

 evidence obtained all tends to show that this species merely 

 frequents the waters of the North Atlantic from June to the 

 end of October, after which date it is seldom found to the 

 north of the tropic of Cancer ; and these remarks apply 

 to some extent to the Sooty Shearwater, P. griseus. If a 

 specimen of the large Shearwater from the Azores could be 

 obtained it might prove to be P. borealis, and not, as is 

 generally supposed, P. kuhli of the Mediterranean. Further 

 information respecting the distribution of the Skuas is much 

 to be desired, especially as regards dates. Meanwhile we 

 are very thankful to Mr. Swinburne for what he has done, 

 in spite of the difficulties which necessarily attend upon 

 voyages by mail-steamers, and we trust that our remarks 

 may stimulate his zeal. 



61. Vian on the Young in Down of the Ptilopsedes. 



[Monograpliie des Poussins des Oiseaux d'Europe qui naissent vetus de 

 duvet (Ftilopesdes, Sundevall). Par J. Vian. Bull. Soc. Zool, de France, 

 1886, pp. 340-419.] 



M. Viands paper treats of the downy young of the Euro- 

 pean species of Gallinae and Grallse ; the latter Order com- 

 prising the Bustards, Plovers, Scolopacidse, Rails, Cranes, 

 Herodiones, and Flamingo. As regards the Herons, &c., he 

 somewhat naively remarks that " one would hesitate to admit 

 them among the birds which are hatched covered with down, 

 if it were not that they incontestably belong to an Order in 

 which all the nestlings are clothed on emerging from the egg.^^ 

 This is one way of settling the question, with a vengeance ! 



