462 Recent Ornithological Publications. 



XL. — Recent Ornithological Publications. 



1. English Publications. 



Although 'The Naturalist on the Amazons^* is not specially 

 addressed to the ornithologist, Mr. Bates's volumes will receive 

 a hearty welcome from every lover of nature, whatever particular 

 branch of animal or vegetable life he may turn his attention to. 

 Mr. Bates left England, in company with Mr. Wallace, in 1847, 

 and remained nearly twelve years, without intermission, at various 

 stations on the banks of the Amazon, between Para and San 

 Paulo. During this time he devoted himself without ceasing to 

 natural history, and collected specimens of nearly 15,000 species 

 of various classes of animals, the far greater proportion of 

 these being insects, to the study of which class Mr. Bates has 

 principally paid attention. It is much to be regretted that 

 Mr. Bates's collection of birds, of which about 360 species were 

 obtained, has been dispersed without any complete record f 

 having been preserved of their names and localities. Unfortu- 

 nately, too, Mr. Wallace lost the greater part of his collections 

 by shipwreck on his return-voyage to England, so that the 

 opportunity of making a valuable contribution to ornithological 

 geography which might have resulted from the careful record 

 of the localities of the specimens of these two diligent collectors 

 has been lost. This is the more to be regretted as we have few 

 authorities on the ornithology of the Amazons, except Spix and 

 Martins and the somewhat unsatisfactory labours of MM. Castel- 

 nau and Deville ; and it will probably be many years before two 

 naturalists so capable as Messrs. Wallace and Bates will again 

 devote themselves to the task. 



Though, as we have already stated, entomology is Mr. Bates's 

 forte, numerous passages of especial interest to the ornithologist 

 will be found throughout his volumes; and those who admire 



* The Naturalist on the River Amazons, a record of adventures, habits 

 of animals, sketches of Brazilian and Indian life and aspects of nature 

 under the Equator during eleven years of travel. By Henry Walter Bates. 

 2 vols. London, 1863. Murray. 



t A list of one of Mr. Bates's collections of birds from Ega and the Rio 

 Javarri will be found in the ' Pioceedings of the Zoological Society ' for 

 1857, p. 261. 



