New and forthcoming Ornithological Works, ^c. 187 



subject. The descriptions are long, and we should have liked 

 to have seen the salient characteristics of each species given, as 

 in Sharpe's Monograph of the Alcedinidse, in concise terms. 

 It is true that plates do away with much of the immediate 

 necessity of such diagnostic characters ; yet their presence would 

 have been an undoubted gain. These are minor matters, and 

 are outweighed many times over by the real merits of the work, 

 upon which no pains have been spared either in letterpress or 

 plates. The authors have a long journey before them ; but w-e 

 do not doubt their industry and ability to accomplish all they 

 have undertaken. We wish them every success. 



A Catalogue of the Birds of Europe, by M. Alph. Dubois*, 

 has just reached us. A bare list of 575 European species are 

 recognized, without including what M. Dubois considers "Va- 

 rietates climaticse.^^ In dealing with these latter, the lines be- 

 tween so-called species and varieties have been drawn without 

 much discrimination, and the author not unfrequently, as in 

 the case of Falco peregrinus, Strix flammea, &c., travels far out- 

 side his limits to show, we suppose, the number of "varieties" 

 into which those " species " are divisible. Stragglers are freely 

 admitted to rank as European birds. M. Dubois pays no re- 

 gard to an important rule of nomenclature respecting authors of 

 generic names. Thus we find the first edition of Linnaeus con- 

 stantly quoted, Moehring, we might almost say of course, Bar- 

 rere, 1745, Ray, 1713, and Aldrovandus, 1610-11 ! How often 

 must it be repeated that the names of these authors have no 

 meanins: whatever in a binominal sense ? 



The second part of a new ' Fauna d^Italia^ contains the com- 

 mencement of an account of the Italian birds by Count Tom- 

 maso Salvadorif- 



The first fasciculus, which is all that has yet reached us, in- 

 cludes 196 species belonging to the following orders of Count 

 Salvadori^s arrangement : — Accipitres (diurni et nocturni); Pi- 

 cARiiE (Picidee, Yunginse, CucuUnse, Coraciidse, Meropidte, Al- 



* Conspectus systematicus et geographicus Avium Em-opfearum auc- 

 tore Alph. Dubois, Doctors Scieu. Nat. ; conservatore in Museo reg. 

 Nat. Hist. Belgii. Bruxellis (1871). Large 8vo, pp. 35. 



t Fauna d'ltalia, Parte seconda : Uccelli, per Tonimaso'Salvadori. Fas- 

 cicolo prime : Milano, 1870 (Francesco Vallardi). 



