210 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



scribing the new species of Mr. Ober's collection in a paper 

 we noticed in last year's volume (Ibis, 1878, p. 468). The 

 island of St. Vincent, as here shown, contains 59 species of 

 birds, of which 23 belong to widely ranging wading and 

 sea-birds. Of the remaining 37 eight or nine are probably 

 peculiar to this small island. In the present paper Mr, Ober's 

 field-notes are incorporated with Mr. Lawrence's observations 

 on the synonymy &c. 



Our ignorance of the nature of the bird-fauna of the 

 West-Indies has long been a subject of regret amongst orni- 

 ,thologists ; and we cannot but rejoice that the energy and 

 resources of the Smithsonian Institution, under whose auspices 

 Mr. Ober is working, have at last been invoked to remove 

 the veil that has hung over these islands, so far as ornithology 

 is concerned, and, we believe, as regards most other branches 

 of biology. To show how little our knowledge has progressed, 

 we believe Mr. Ober has resumed the exploration of St. "Vin- 

 cent more than half a century after the commencement made 

 by the Rev. Lansdown Guilding, whose name the splendid 

 Parrot of the island bears, and whose early death arrested 

 the labours of an excellent observer. 



31. Lawrence on the Birds of Dominica. 



[Catalogue of the Birds of Dominica, from Collections made for the 

 Smithsonian Institution by Frederick A. Ober, together with his Notes 

 and Observations. By George N. Lawrence. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1878, 

 p. 48.] 



Fifty-six species of birds are included in this list, which is 

 a large advance upon the number previously recorded from 

 Dominica. In a preliminary paper, which we noticed last 

 year (Ibis, 1878, p. 103), Mr. Lawrence described several new 

 species from this island. We now have a complete list 

 of the species in the collection, together with Mr. Ober's 

 field-notes. Several undetermined species are included in 



bird was a specimen, in gTey plumage, of the Mexican and Guatemalan 

 species which I had always considered it to belong to. I still think 

 that the name applies strictly tothe bird called -S', macculU by American 

 authors, Scops asio (i maccalli of Mr. Ridgway's paper (p. 109). — 0. S.l 



