Recently published Ornithological Works. 83 



Joass, and others, he has compiled a list of 84 species of 

 birds, with some interesting details. The westward spread of 

 the Tree- Sparrow [Passer montanus) is remarkable for its 

 rapidity, unless, indeed, the species had previously been over- 

 looked. It was only in 1882 that Mr. Dalgleish discovered 

 its existence on the west coast to the north of the Clyde, and 

 now we know that there is a colony on Eigg, while Mr. Dixon 

 has obtained it on the remote St. Kilda [cf. Ibis, 1885, p. 82). 

 When Mr. R. Gray wrote his ' Birds of the West of Scotland/ 

 neither the Bullfinch nor the Goldfinch appear to have been 

 known as visitors to this or the other islands of the Inner He- 

 brides. The characteristic bird of Eigg appears to be the 

 Manx Shearwater. 



Mr. Evans's second paper is almost sufficiently explained 

 by the title. An authentic nest of the Marsh-Tit has not 

 been known in the valley of the Forth since 1838. 



10. W. A. Forbes's Scientific Papers. 



[The Collected Scieutifie Papers of the late William Alexander Forbes, 

 M.A., Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge ; Lecturer on Comparative 

 Anatomy at Charing Cross Hospital ; Prosector to the Zoological Society 

 of London. Edited by F. E. Beddard, M.A., Prosector to the Zoological 

 Society of London. With a Preface by P. L. Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., F.ll.S., 

 Secretary to the Zoological Society of London.] 



Little introduction will be required by readers of ' The 

 Ibis ' to the present volume, which contains all the published 

 writings of our much-lamented associate, including his most 

 important work, the Report on the Tubinares collected during 

 the voyage of the ' Challenger.' Not only the letterpress, but 

 also the plates which illustrate his diflFerent papers have 

 been reproduced, and together form a handsome volume of 

 nearly 500 pages and 25 plates. Nearly all Forbes's work 

 was done during his tenure of the office of Prosector to the 

 Zoological Society of London, a period of only two and a half 

 years. The enormous amount of work that he was able to 

 accomplish during that short term (which was still further 

 reduced by a trip to North America in the summer of 1880 

 and by his last journey to Africa, commenced in July 1882) 



g2 



