506 Recently jjuhlished Oniithological Works. 



tcrmining the species more diffieult. It is true that the 

 generic descriptions in the first edition were most of them 

 taken from Gray and Mitchell's ' Genera of Birds/ and doubt- 

 less require considerable revision to bring them up to the 

 standard of the present time ; but "vve maintain that any cha- 

 racters not actually incorrect, in such a work as the ' Birds 

 of South Africa/ would be preferable to none, and we regret 

 their omission. As regards the synonymy, we think that 

 references to all works actually referring to the district treated 

 of should have been given, and at least to the great works of 

 Le Vaillant and Sir A. Smith. Instead, all references are 

 struck out, with the exception of a single one to some illus- 

 tration. To those working at home, and having books at hand, 

 this is of comparatively small consequence ; but the wants of 

 the colonist have, we fear, been overlooked, and this we can- 

 not but regret. 



"When we come to the additions made to the account of 

 the distribution of the diflFerent species, we see the amount of 

 progress that has been made in our knowledge of South- 

 African birds j and here the new edition contrasts, as might 

 be expected, very favourably with the first. 



The nomenclature employed is that used in the ' Catalogue 

 of Birds in the British Museum;' and many of the descrip- 

 tions are copied verbatim from that work — those of the " Fal- 

 cones'' from the volume already published, those of the 

 '' Striges " from the second, now, we believe, in the press. 

 As this great work will, at its present rate, take perhaps 

 twenty years to complete, some other plan for references 

 must be adopted as the ' Birds of South Africa ' passes be- 

 yond the Owls. 



The work is to be completed in six parts, to " be finished 

 in the course of the summer.'' The summer is now already 

 far spent, and Part I. is all that we have seen. 



The scope and object of Dr. Bree's ' Birds of Europe not 

 observed in the British Isles " ^, the appearance of the first 



* A History of the Birds of Europe not observed in the British Isles. 

 By Charles Ilobert Bree, M.D. &c. Second edition, enlarged. "N'ol. I. 

 Large 8vo. London : 1875 (George Bell & Son). 



