Recently published Ornithological Works. 369 



and written amid the pressure of other official work in the 

 author's " private time." 



In his preface to the present volume Sharpe makes 

 the following out-spoken statement of his views on the 

 new system of "trinomials," which deserves attention, even 

 if it may be not quite agreeable to the new school of 

 Systematists. 



" Some exception has been taken to my recognition as 

 species of all the forms described as subspecies or races with 

 trinomial names. My views on this subject have often been 

 stated, and as for trinomials I look upon the system as de- 

 structive. I consider that the burden imposed upon Zoologists 

 who follow this method for the naming of their specimens 

 will become too heavy, and that the system will fall by its 

 own weight. That races or subspecies of birds exist in 

 nature no one can deny, but, to my mind, a binomial title 

 answers every purpose/' 



In the preface to the fifth volume of Sharpe's ' Hand-list ' 

 the total number of the known species of Birds is calculated 

 as 18,939, and the genera as 2,810. In 1871 when George 

 Robert Gray finished his ' Hand-list ' he admitted 2,915 

 genera and 11,162 species. 



Having begun with the lowest birds — an arrangement 

 which we by no means approve of — Sharpe has placed what 

 he considered to be the most highly organized birds in his 

 last volume. The series of Acromyodians, to which it is de- 

 voted, is concluded by the Corvidae and their allies ; these, 

 following Newton and Parker, Sharpe considered to be the 

 most highly developed of the Class of Birds, though the 

 reasons for assigning to them this high position have never 

 been very clearly explained. 



In concluding this short notice of one of the most im- 

 portant works in our branch of Zoological Science that has 

 lately appeared, we need hardly enlarge on its value to the 

 systematic worker who wants to find his references easily. 

 There is an Index to every volume except the first. But 

 there ought also to be a General Index to all the five volumes. 



SER. IX. — VOL. iv. 2 B 



