and forthcoming Bird-Books. 177 



Philippines, which will fill up a hiatus valde deflendus in our 

 knowledge of the Indian ornis, an abstract is given in the 

 Zoological Society's ' Proceedings ' for 1873 (p. 519) ; and 

 the complete memoir will appear before long in the Society's 

 ' Transactions/ The plates are already on the stone. 



We now come to the ^Ethiopian Region. Here Mr. Sharpe 

 is working away with his usual acti^'ity, as several recent con- 

 tributions to the ' Proceedings ' and ' Annals of Natural His- 

 tory ' testify. We also hear with pleasure of the steady pro- 

 gress of his proposed new edition of Layard's 'Birds of 

 South Africa.' 



H> von Heuglin's important work on the birds of North- 

 Eastern Africa has at length come nearly to a close. The 

 42-43rd " Lieferung " brings us to the end of the text and 

 finishes the second volume. But a supplement is promised 

 of additions and alterations, which, with preface and index, 

 will complete the work. The text proper contains an account 

 of no less than 929 species, besides what remain to be added 

 in the supplement. 



New Guinea, situate in the northern portion of the fourth 

 and last of the regions of the Old World, has lately been the 

 seat of the researches of several rival naturalists of different 

 nations. Russia has sent Dr. Miklucho-Maclay, Germany 

 Dr. A. B. Meyer, and Italy Signor D'Albertis, to reap part 

 of the rich harvest presented by Papuan nature in every de- 

 partment. Of these active explorers D'Albertis has succeeded 

 in bringing his results, as regards birds, first before the world. 

 The firstfi'uits of his collections, which reached London in 

 June last year, contained sixteen new species, which have 

 been described in the Zoological Society's 'Proceedings'*. 

 Amongst them were two new Birds of Paradise, Paradisea 

 raggiana and Drepanornis albertisi, besides other remark- 

 able novelties. A third new Bird of Paradise {Epimachus 

 elioti) has lately been described by Mr. Edwin Ward from a 

 native skinf. We trust that the other two explorers of the 

 wilds of Papua will have succeeded in producing other results 

 equally remarkable. 



* P. Z. S. 1873, pp. 557, 690. t See P. Z. S, 1873, p. 742. 



