Recently piiblis/ied Ornithological IVurks. 395 



The present volume deals with the first half of the birds of 

 the Order Passeres found within the limits assigned to the 

 present work, i. e. Africa south of the Zambesi and Cunene 

 rivers. The author, as he tells us^ has endeavoured to arrange 

 the subject-matter in such a manner that a tyro in ornitho- 

 logy may be enabled to identify a specimen with a certain 

 amount of ease and accuracy. The plan and arrangement 

 adopted are based upon those followed by Mr. Eugene Oates 

 in the volumes on '' Biids " in the ^ Fauna of British India,^ 

 viz., a full description, illustrated where necessary, of the 

 characters which define the difterent genera, followed by a 

 key to the species included in each. 



The majority of the descriptions have been taken from 

 specimens in the South African Museum at Cape Town, 

 where there is a good mounted series of South African 

 birds in the public gallery, besides a large named collection 

 in cabinets. The remainder are mostly from exara|)les in 

 the Albany Museum at Grahamstown, the Durban Museum 

 in Natal, and from the author^s own collection. The 

 present work is rendered of special value by the author's 

 own field-notes, resulting from his long personal exjje- 

 riences in various parts of the Cape Colony, Natal, and 

 the Transvaal from 1892 to 1898, for in these will be found 

 concise accounts of the general habits, food, song, and nidifi- 

 cation of the various species. The perusal of some of these 

 excellent notes leads us to regret more than ever that Stark 

 did not live to complete his work. We fear it will be a very 

 difficult task to arrange the MSS. and journals left behind 

 him so as to finish the work in the same fashion. 



So far as we know no previous writer has recorded so 

 clearly the extraordinary breeding-habits of some of the 

 Weaver-birds, which alone among the Passeres seem to be 

 decidedly polygamous. For example, we select Stark's 

 account of the nesting-habits of the Great-tailed Widow- 

 bird (Coliopasser procne), which somewhat resemble the 

 proceedings of the Fur-Seals (Oiaria) among Mammals: — 



" As soon as the males begin to assume their long tails in 

 spring the flocks break up, and each male, accompanied by 



