174 Mr. P. L. Sclater on neiv 



subject would be enough to satisfy the British public at the 

 present time ; but it appears that such is not the case, for we 

 are told that a new edition of Dr. Breeds ' Birds of Europe ' 

 is called for, and will be commenced forthwith. 



Persia, as intervening between the well-known faunas of 

 Europe and India, is a most interesting country as regards 

 the geographical aspect of ornithology. We are rejoiced to 

 hear that there is at last every prospect of our becoming well 

 acquainted with it. Major St. John and Mr. Blanford are 

 now in this country preparing a report upon the expedition 

 which they were engaged in on the eastern frontiers of Persia 

 last year. The second volume of this work, to which the 

 Indian Government has accorded considerable assistance, 

 will be prepared by Mr. Blanford, and will be devoted entirely 

 to the zoology of Persia. The series of birds is large ; and 

 Mr. Blan ford's thorough acquaintance with Indian and Euro- 

 pean forms will render his account of the intervening district 

 of great value to science. 



As regards the more central portions of the Palsearctic 

 Region, we hear that the new Russian expedition under Prshe- 

 valski has lately returned to St. Petersburg"^, having amassed 

 large zoological treasures in the great desert of Gobi and ad- 

 jacent parts of Tibet. The species of birds obtained number 

 292, among which are said to be new species of Gyps, Turdus, 

 Pterorhinus, and Podoces. The first volume of Prshevalski^s 

 work on the results of this expedition, to be entitled ' Mon- 

 golia and the country of the Tanguts,^ will appear before the 

 end of the year. 



M. SevertzofF has published his researches upon the Fauna 

 of Turkestan in the ' Transactions ' of the Imperial Society 

 of Naturalists of Moscow, under the title of " Turkestanskie 

 Sevotnie.^^ Unfortunately the whole book is in Russian, so 

 that it is not possible for a person unacquainted with that 

 abnormal language to make much of it. It is, however, an 

 important work ; and we hope, with Mr. Dresser's kind aid, to 

 give some account of it in our next number. 



* See Petermann's ' Mittheilungen,' 1874, p. 41, for some account of this 

 adventurous expedition ; likewise ' The Geographical Magazine ' for April 

 1874, p. 6. 



