IGO 



THE OS PEE Y. 



volume of 328 pages with 14 photographic 

 plates, including- a portrait of the author. 



The photographs are mostly of mounted birds, 

 and as a rule the birds were not well mounted. 

 262 species are described. We are sorry to have 

 to add, however, that the work is not eas3' to 

 procure, and as it is in Spanish we presume it 

 would be a closed book to many. It was origi- 

 nally published as an appendix to a medical 

 journal — "Archivos de la Policlinica." 



The most recent considerable list of Cuban 

 birds in English is by ISIr. Frank M. Chapman, 

 and records the results of his collecting about 

 Trinidad in March and April. 1892. It is en- 

 titled "Notes on Birds and Mammals observed 

 near Trinidad, Cuba, with remarks on the origin 

 of West Indian bird-life", and is published in 

 the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natu- 

 ral History (IV, 279-330). Mr. Chapman found 



99 species of birds. In his general "remarks" 

 he states that in the "greater Antilles these are 

 169 land birds and 5 water birds "/^cni/iar to 

 the West Indies" and they are distributed as 

 follows. 



Total. Endemic. 



Jamaica 66 42 



Cuba 68 45 



Hayti 56 34 



Porto Rico 46 25 



These figures would not be materially modi- 

 fied by recent discoveries. We ma^- add, how- 

 ever, that when Chapman wrote Gundlach had 

 only found 257 species instead of the 262 recor- 

 ded in his "Ornitologia Cubana". 



The I'elatively small number of Vjirds attri- 

 buted to the large island of Hayti is probably 

 due to less knowledge of the fauna rather than 

 its absolute poverty'. 



Notes. 



The remains of the late Dr. Coues were 

 transferred from the receiving vault where they 

 have been since the funeral in December to 

 their final resting place, on Tuesday', the 29th of 

 Maj': this is Arlington Cemetery, near Wash- 

 ington, originally the residence of General 

 Robert Lee, and long- devoted to the burial of 

 soldiers and sailors. 



The small Emu of Kangaroo Island has a 

 singular history. Three individuals were caught 

 in 1803, and talsen alive to France by the French 

 Scientific Expedition under the command of 

 Captain Baudin. (The island was then named 

 "Isle Decres.") Two were sent to "Ea Mal- 

 maison", then the favorite residence of Jose- 

 phine, Napoleon's consort, and one to the Jardin 

 des Plantes. Two lived till 1822, and then one 

 was skeletonized, and the other mounted for the 

 museum. The third was entirely lost sight of 

 till recently, when the Hon. Walter Rothschild, 

 during a visit to Florence, had his attention 

 directed to a skeleton that had been laid aside 

 bv Professor Giglioli, director of the Roval 



Zoological Museum; he recognized in it the 

 little Emu of Kangaroo Island, and concluded 

 that it was the remains of the third Emu caught 

 in 1803. 



This Emu was found in large nvimbers on the 

 island when discovered, and troops regularly 

 descended to the sea shore to drink the salt water 

 at sunset. The island was subsequently settled 

 upon b^' a squatter who immediately proceeded, 

 in the manner of civilized (!) men, to exterminate 

 the birds, and was so successful that the species 

 has been long extinct. It was like the common 

 Australian Emu, but much smaller, and the 

 feathers of the neck were entirely black. It was 

 described by the celebrated naturalist of the 

 Expedition, Peron, but supposed b3' him to be of 

 the same species as the Australian bird: its dis- 

 tinctive peculiarities were appreciated later by 

 a better ornithologist, Vieillot. and b^- him 

 called Dromaius atcr. 



This account has been condensed from one in 

 Nature for May 31, (p. 102,) by Dr. Giglioli who 

 promises a more detailed notice later. 



Literature. 



A New Edition of White's Selborne has 

 been added to the already very long list. The 

 last is edited by the eminent ornithologrist. Dr. 

 R. Bowdler Sharpe. It will be completed it two 

 volumes with the title "Natural Historv and 



Antiquities of Selborne and a garden calendar." 

 The publisher is S. T. Freemantle of London. 

 There are numerous plates and other illustra- 

 tions. The plates are said to be very fine. 



