not observed in the British Isles' 95 



the Indian continent^ and in Africa from south to north. It is 

 common in Egypt, and it occurs in Java, New Holland, and also 

 in the southern part of North America/^ Now, by all modem 

 authors of repute, the North American Swallow-tailed Kite 

 {Elanoides furcatus, Vieill.) is justly removed from the genus 

 Elanus ; and then, of this genus as thus restricted, there are cer- 

 tainly three other, well marked-species, besides the European, 

 of which we are at present speaking. These are, the American 

 White-tailed Kite [E, leucurus, Vieill.), of which plates may be 

 found in Mr. Audubon's work (B. Am. pis. 351, 352), and 

 the Australian Axillary and Letter-winged Kites {E. axillaris, 

 Lath, and E. scriptus), both well figured by Mr. Gould (B. 

 Austr. i. pis. 23, 24), which not only in their geographical range, 

 but in their characters to be perceived even at first sight, are 

 undeniably distinct from E. melanopterus. 



We are glad that our author has not included Falco pei-egri- 

 no'ides of Sir A. Smith in his work — it is a truly South African 

 species, and we are not aware of its occurrence within European 

 limits. So also of Tinnunculus rupicolus (Daud.), though the 

 Norwich Museum contains a specimen said to be from Greece, — 

 not a very likely locality for this bird. 



We regret that ]\Ir. Bree has not thought fit to adhere to the 

 rules of nomenclature now almost universally adopted, especially 

 when introducing so many species, it may be for the first time, 

 to the majority of his readers. In the present article we have 

 called the subjects of our author's work by those names which 

 in the opinion of almost all naturalists should be applied to 

 them. We trust that for the future he will take care of this. 

 Let him be assured that by not doing so, he is throwing a most 

 serious obstacle in the way of beginners ; and, if we might be 

 permitted to tender our advice to such persons, we would strongly 

 recommend them at once to get in the way of using those names 

 which inevitably will be adopted at last. 



It remains for us to remark upon the plates in Mr. Bree's 

 work. As examples of printing in colours, which we believe they 

 are, they are very successful, and much superior to those in the 

 kindred book of Mr. Morris; but they are not always, when 

 regarded solely from an ornithological point of view, very accu- 



