216 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



which we notice that two specimens of Dendrceca kirklandi 

 have been captured in Ohio, within two miles of where Dr. 

 Kirkland originally found it. More specimens of Vireo atri- 

 capillus have turned up in Texas ; and the history of the spe- 

 cimen of Helminthophaga leucobronchialis, found in the Phila- 

 delphia Museum, is traced. 



42. Sharpe on the Birds of Rodriguez. 

 [Natural History of the Transit-of-Venus Expedition. Birds.] 

 Mr. Sharpe has sent us a copy of the " Birds " of the 

 Zoology of Rodriguez, which we take to be a portion of the 

 work on the results obtained by the naturalists of the Transit- 

 of-Venus Expedition, now in course of preparation by the 

 Royal Society. The paper itself calls for few comments on 

 our part ; for, as Mr. Sharpe justly remarks in his introductory 

 observations, but little is contained in it that had not already 

 been made public by Mr. E. Newton in this Journal (Ibis, 

 1865, p. 146), or by Prof. Newton here and elsewhere. The 

 only additions that we notice are in the wading and sea-birds, 

 several of which Mr. Newton was unable to determine, and 

 some of which did not come under his notice at all. As regards 

 observations on the habits and abundance or otherwise of the 

 indigenous species, Mr. Newton is still our only authority, 

 as neither of the collectors in this expedition have practically 

 any thing to say on the subject. In matters of nomenclature 

 Mr. Sharpe propounds that the Warbler doubtfully referred 

 to the genus Drymceca as D. rodericana by Prof. Newton 

 (who, by the by, never wrote Drymacal), should, without 

 doubt, be placed in Bradypterus. His argument does not 

 strike us as convincing. The paper is supplemented by a 

 "Note on Anous," in which Mr. Sharpe describes three new 

 species of this genus — two, allied to A. stolidus, as A. super- 

 ciliosus and A. galapagensis, and one of the A. tenuirostris 

 group as A.plumheigularis, As considerations of geographical 

 distribution appear to be reckoned of next to no value in differ- 

 entiating these species, we cannot help concluding that their 

 characters are as artificial as the "key^^ defining them. 

 According to the latter A. galapagensis differs more from 



