Recently published Ornithulogical Works. 3G7 



Caprimulgiis ruficollis, where '^ Kellingworth " should be 

 " Killing worth/' 



34. Giglioli on Italian Birds. 



[Avifauna Italica, nuovo Elenco Sistematico delle Specie di Uccelli, 

 stationarie, di Passaggio o di accidentale Comparsa in Italia ; coi nomi 

 volgari, colla loro distribuzione geografica, con notizie intorno alia 

 loro Biologia, ed un esame critico delle Variazioni e delle cosidette sotto 

 specie. Dal Enrico Hillyer Giglioli. Florence, 1907. Pp. i-xxiv, 1-784.J 



In the year 1886 Professor Giglioli earned the gratitude 

 of the ornithological world by compiling his first 'Avifauna 

 Italica/ consequent upon a shorter meraoir in the Roman 

 Annals of Agriculture. He now gives us, in what may be 

 termed a second edition, the results of his labours from 1886 

 to the present time, pending the completion of his illustrated 

 folio work, ' Iconografia dell' Avifauna Italica.' Much new 

 information has been amassed in these twenty years, and the 

 aid of the Ministers of Public Works and Marine has been 

 invoked, and not in vain, to the assistance of Orni- 

 thologists, chiefly with regard to the Migration and the 

 Distribution of species. Further statistics are, as the 

 author tells us, still needed ; but we have here a very satis- 

 factory account of the birds of the Kingdom of Italy. 



Proper attention is paid to the new subspecies or species 

 that have occurred in the country, more especially where 

 " neogenesis,''' or the birth of new forms (e. g. Athene 

 chiarardia) , has been asserted ; due weight is also given to 

 the question of geographical races. 



Several of the specific names used are not those with 

 which we are most familiar, but it would be impossible in 

 a short space to discuss their validity. 



We must, in conclusion, draw particular attention to the 

 excellent Introduction, which gives an account of the progress 

 of Ornithology in Italy and a statement of the Professor's 

 creed. He declares himself an unsparing opponent of the 

 fashion of founding new species or subspecies on very slight, 

 or mere individual, characters, and considers that such 

 characters are unfortunately often confounded with those 



