551 RtCfiilhi putilii-.lttd Ondlholoylcnl Works. 



which was in favour of a relationship of Phororhacos to tlie 

 Cariamidce, is completely misstated. 



As to the exact age of the deposits in which the Stere- 

 ornithcs are found, Mercerat states that he considers it to 

 he somewhere between the Upper Eocene and Middle Mio- 

 cene, a much mire reasonable view than is held by some 

 South-American writers. 



87. The Norrwegian North Polar Expedition. 



[The NonveKum ^^'ovth Polar Expedition, 1893-1896.— Pt. IV. An 

 .\ccount of the Birds. By Robert CoUett and Fridtjof Nansen. 4to.] 



The first section of this small (54 pp.) but important work 

 treats of the journey of the ' Frara ' along the coast of 

 Siberia, from July 29th until the closing-in of the ship to the 

 north-west of the 'Sevv Siberian Islands on September 25th, 

 1893. The birds observed were then chiefly on their way 

 southward. The second section contains the observations 

 made while the 'Fram' was diifting with the ice towards 

 the north-west during the summer of 1894 and up to the 

 time when Nansen and Johansen started on their daring 

 sledge-journey on March 11th, 1895. It was in August 

 1894 that specimens of Ross's Wedge-tailed Gull {Rhodo- 

 stethia rosea) were obtained — birds only just old enough to 

 fly — and the descriptions of flight, habits, and plumage of 

 this interesting spt cies, supplemented by the coloured plate 

 of " the youngest on record/' are an attractive feature of the 

 book. The species is, of course, mentioned again in the third 

 section (Nansen and Johansen's sledge-journey) in reference 

 to the obviotis proximity of its breeding-place somewhere 

 on the north-east side of Franz Josef Land ; but no examples 

 were obtained at that time, for powder and shot were far 

 too valuable for procuring food to be expended on such small 

 objects. The fourth section is devoted to the birds observed 

 during the last two summers (1895-06) that the ' Fram ' 

 passed in the ice, when Fulmurus ylacialis was seen on 

 September 14th in lat. 85° N., " the highest latitude in which 

 birds have ever been known to be observed.'" This is a most 

 interesting contribution, from beginning to end. 



