Recent Ornithological Publications. 403 



other hand, the worthy Brisson's descriptions of the 38 species 

 of birds from Madagascar, principally taken from specimens 

 sent by Poivre to the Reaumurian collection, are, as is always 

 the case with that author, very full and complete, and may be 

 relied upon as indicating valid species, though some of them 

 have not been found again up to the present time. Sonnerat, 

 in his 'Voyage a la Chine,' Desjardins in the 'Proceedings' of 

 the Societe d'Hist. Nat. de I'isle Maurice, and Dr. A. Smith in 

 the ' South- African Quarterly Journal,' were the next succeeding 

 contributors to the ornithology of Madagascar, but none of 

 them to any very great extent. But about twenty-five years 

 ago a new and happier era for our knowledge of this ornithology 

 began with the labours of several French travellers and savants. 

 Victor Sganzin, at one time Commandant of the French island of 

 St. Marie, on the eastern coast of Madagascar, who has published 

 his notes on the mammals and birds observed during his resi- 

 dence there, in the Memoirs of the N. H. Society of Strasburg, 

 was one of the earliest of these. Bernier, Goudot, and Rous- 

 seau, three well-knbwn names among those of the Naturaliste- 

 voyageurs who have contributed so largely to the enrichment 

 of the French National Collection, succeeded Sganzin in his 

 explorations. Their many brilliant discoveries have been made 

 known to the world by the scientific labours of I. GeofFroy 

 St.-Hilaire, de Lafresnaye, and Pucheran. In 1848 Dr. Hart- 

 laub turned his special attention towards the ornithology of 

 Madagascar, and published a complete resume of what was then 

 known on the subject in the fii-st volume of D'Alton and Bur- 

 nieister's ' Zeitung fiir Zoologie.' As it will be observed that 

 Dr. Hartlaub has in his present work nearly doubled his list of 

 species, it will be evident that our knowledge of this peculiar 

 fauna has been considerably increased since that period. This 

 has been effected partly by the labours of the Austrian botanist 

 Bojer and Madame Ida Pfeiffer, whose specimens have been de- 

 posited in the Vienna Museum, and critically examined for Dr. 

 Hartlaub's work by A. v. Pelzeln, partly by small collections 

 made by William Jardine (son of Sir William Jardine) at Bo- 

 janna Bay, and by Prof. Peters at St. Augustin's Bay, and partly 

 by closer investigations of the Museums of Paris, Vienna, Leyden, 



