198 Recent Ornithological Publications. 



able duration. Dr. Bennett^ in terms quoted from the introduc- 

 tion to Mr. Gould's well-known ' Birds of Australia/ cites several 

 instances of this irregular migration, mentioning NympMcus 

 nova-hollandice, Melopsittacus undulatus, Leucosarcia picata, Pe- 

 ristera histrionica, Geronticus spinicollis, Threskiornis strictipennis, 

 and, above all, Tribonyx ventralis, as especially subject to it. 



The author offers us (pp. 186, 187) a description of the egg of 

 Menura superba, furnished him by Mr. Gould, of which that 

 gentleman states, "up to the present moment (December 1859) 

 no correct delineation or description has been given." We do 

 not know whether this observation is meant to refer to the 

 account foraierly published in the ' Birds of Australia,' or to 

 that of Herr Ludwig Becker in the ' Journal fiir Ornithologie ' 

 for 1856, where an egg, said to be of this species, is both de- 

 lineated (pi. 2. fig. 18) and described (p. 133). Herr Becker's 

 specimen seems not to differ from that of which the account is 

 to be found in Dr. Bennett's pages, more than the eggs of the 

 same species often do. 



Should the ' Gatherings of a Naturalist ' reach a second edi- 

 tion, we hope the author will give us a clearer explanation of the 

 diagram at p. 78, which, he says, will serve to illustrate the pecu- 

 liar flight of the Albatros. At present it appears to be impossible 

 to comprehend it. 



The ' Journal of the Royal Dublin Society' for July and Oc- 

 tober 1860 contains some " Notes on the Zoology of the last 

 Arctic Expedition under Captain Sir F. L. M'Clintock," by Dr. 

 David Walker, the ornithological portion of which is an amplifi- 

 cation of the paper already published by this gentleman in this 

 Magazine {' Ibis,' 1860, p. 165). We observe that the author 

 withdraws from his revised list the name of Anas fuligula, which 

 was included by him, in the article just alluded to, and by so 

 doing justifies the doubt since expressed on the subject by Pro- 

 fessor Beinhardt in his paper on the Birds of Greenland pub- 

 lished in our last Number ('Ibis,' 1861, p. 1). We think it 

 a matter of regret that Dr. Walker should have quoted, so much 

 as he has done, from Edwards, Richardson, and Temminck, with 

 respect to the geographical distribution of species ; for many of 



