Recently published Ornithological Works. 501 



which 5. 5W«ew5om presents itself are fully described; and 

 very various they arc. This bird a few years ago was very im- 

 perfectly understood ; now, however, the contrary may be said, 

 due chiefly to the labours of American ornithologists, and espe- 

 cially to the large series of specimens so industriously brought 

 together by the authorities of the Smithsonian Institution. 



Another paper of Mr. Kidgway's treats of a favourite sub- 

 ject of his, the genus Leucosticte, and, we may add, exhaust- 

 tively; for, judging from the extent of the materials at his 

 command, numbering some hundreds of specimens, little must 

 remain to be said of the relationship existing between the 

 American members of the genus. Of the Old- World species 

 of Leucosticte little is said beyond referring them to a new 

 subgenus, Hijpolia (a name introduced, after a growing prac- 

 tice among ornithologists, in a foot-note, without formal cha- 

 racters) . Four American species of this genus are now recog- 

 nized, viz. L. atrata, L. tepJirocotis, L. ausiralis, and L. brun- 

 neinucha ; of these the second is subdi\dded into three varieties 

 or races — L. tephrocotis, L. littoralis, and L. griseiniccha. 

 Specimens of Leucosticte a few years ago were considered 

 amongst the rarities of a collection ; but this can scarcely be 

 said to be the case now. Mr. Ridgway tells us of a collector 

 who pursued a flock of these birds, killing fifteen and twenty 

 at a shot, till he had killed 350; a friend followed him 

 about with a board, upon which the bodies of the slain were 

 laid. We can only hope that these all came under Mr. Ridg- 

 way 's eye, and helped him to form his conclusions. 



Colonel Irby^s book* is one that will bear favoui'able com- 

 parison, to say nothing more, with any work of the kind that 

 has of late appeared, and is a very welcome addition to orni- 

 thological literature. Its author must be already well known 

 to our readers from his " List of Birds observed in Oudh and 

 Kumaon,^^ pubHshcd long ago in these pages (Ibis, 1861, 

 p. 217) ; and ' The Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar ' 



* The Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar. By Lieut.-Colouel L. 

 Howard L. Irby, F.Z.S. &c. London (Porter, (5 Tenterden Street) : 1876, 

 8vo, pp. 236. 



