Recently published Ornithological Works. 480 



Snipe and discourses on the melanic tendencies observed in 

 Ireland^ as exemplified in tlie dark variety of the common 

 rat and also in many of the Irish Lepidoptera. 



104. Bay on Birds from East Greenland. 



[Hvirveldyr fra den dansko Expedition til Gr^ulands Ostkyst 1891-92. 

 — Soertiik af Meddelelser om Gr^uland, xix. 1894. Ved Edv. Bay.] 



This memoir contains an account of the vertebrates ob- 

 tained in East Greenland by the Danish Expedition of 

 1891-92. Examples of 3.3 species of birds were collected, 

 of which one [Anser segetum) was new to Greenland, and 

 five were new to East Greenland. The Passeres met with 

 were four, namely, Saxicola oenanthe, Plectrojjhenax nivalis, 

 Acanthis (sc. Linota) linaria, and Corvus corax. Full field- 

 notes are given for all the species. 



105. Beddard's 'Zoogeography.' 



[A Text-book of Zoogeography. By Frank E. Beddard, M.A., F.R.S. 

 Cambridge, 1895.] 



IMr. Beddard's text-book, which forms one of the biological 

 series of the Cambridge Natural Science IVIanuals, does not 

 relate specially to ornithology, but contains many references 

 to the facts of distribution of birds. The. author, we are 

 pleased to see, adheres closely to the six principal regions 

 deduced by Sclater in 1857 from the study of bird-life, 

 though he does not fail to record the divergent views of 

 other writers on the subject. Naturally enough, he draws 

 many of his illustrations from the distribution of earth- 

 worms, of which group he has lately published such a valu- 

 able study. 



' Zoogeography ' contains a large amount of information 

 on the subject treated of, concentrated into a small compass. 

 In such a mass of particulars it is impossible to avoid a 

 certain number of slips. We may point out one or two as 

 regards birds. Francolinus kirki is not limited to the island 

 of Zanzibar; on reference to the B. ]M. Catalogue (xxii. 

 p. 149) it will be seen that it occurs also on the mainland. 

 Totanus incanus (p. 10) is not a good instance of a cosmo- 



