732 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



In his " Introduction/^ Mr. Oates reviews the history of 

 the great Collection of eggs from its commencement. It 

 appears to have been begun in 1842, when the late D. W. 

 Mitchell presented some eggs of British birds, chiefly from 

 Cornwall. In 1850 the collection made during the voyage 

 of the 'Rattlesnake' arrived, in 1852 that made in the course 

 of the voyage of the ' Acheron/ and in 1871 the series col- 

 lected during the Transit-of -Venus Expedition in Kerguelen. 



But it was in 1885 that the two greatest acquisitions 

 were made, by the presentation to the Trustees of the mag- 

 nificent collection of Indian Eggs of Mr. Hume, and of 

 the splendid series amassed in the cabinets of Messrs. Salvin 

 and Godraan, which was especially rich in specimens from 

 America. In 1891 Mr. Howard Saunders presented his 

 well-selected series of the eggs of the Laridse, and in 1893 

 Seebohra made over his celebrated collection, chiefly of Palse- 

 arctic birds^-eggs, to the Nation. With all these and many 

 other important additions, the British Museum now contains 

 by far the most extensive and valuable collection of birds'- 

 eggs in the world, numbering some 50,000 specimens. 



The present volume is illustrated by a series of 18 excel- 

 lent coloured plates, drawn by Mr. Gronwald. While we 

 most heartily recognise the thoroughness and exactness with 

 which the author of the present volume has fulfilled his 

 difficult task, there can be no harm in expressing a wish 

 that the " explanation " of these plates had been managed in 

 a different way. The names of the species figured might well 

 have been placed on the plates themselves, or at least on an 

 opposite page, instead of being all run together at the com- 

 mencement. Some of them also (e. g., that of Cnhjmbus 

 77«c?]/iCM.?,pl.xi.fig.6) are wrongly numbered in the letterpress. 



139. Reichenow's ' Birds of Africa.' 



[Die Vogel Afi'ikas von Ant. Reichenow. Erster Band. Zweite 

 Halfte. 4to. Neudamm, 1901. Pp. xcvii-civ, 321-706. Price oOs.] 



Dr. Reichenow completes the first volume of his Birds of 

 Africa by the issue of the present part {cf. above, p. 142), 

 which carries on the subject to the end of the Strigidse 



