750 Recently published Ornithological Worjcs. 



tAvelve sections, to provide an account of all the subjects 

 mentioned in the title. He complains that since 1885 no 

 important comprehensive book has been published in Britain 

 on its Birds ; while he seems to prefer the " new Naumann " 

 to our recognised authorities, and to take it, roughly speaking, 

 as a model. We hope that he will succeed in his some- 

 what ambitious project of bringing together information 

 from every source in a comparatively small compass, and 

 there can be no doubt that of late years much fresh light has 

 been thrown on such subjects as Courtship and Migration. 

 As Mr. Kirkman states that his work is intended in the main 

 to be of a popular description, and devoted specially to a con- 

 sideration of the birds' habits, it may well be useful to those 

 for whom he writes, and we see that he has secured a goodly 

 number of contributors, many of whose names are well 

 known in various branches of Ornithology. 



Each chapter is to deal with a Family, and coloured plates 

 are to be given of nearly all the birds and eggs. These 

 are not particularly successful, but we are pleased with 

 some of the photographs of the nests. 



94. Littler on the Birds of Tasmania. 



[A Handbook of the Birds of Tasmania and its Dependencies. By 

 Frank Mervyn Littler, F.E.S. Launceston, Tasmania, 1910. lvol. 8vo. 

 242 pp. Price 4a-.] 



A book on the Birds of the whole continent of Australia 

 must necessarily be a bulky work, and could hardly be 

 made conveniently portable; but the much smaller avi- 

 iauna of Tasmania renders such an undertaking, as regards 

 that country, a comparatively easy matter. We are, there- 

 fore, much pleased that Mr. Littler should have taken up 

 the task, and are sure that his f Handbook ' will be mucli 

 appreciated by his fellow-countrymen, who were previously 

 obliged to go to Australian authorities to find descriptions 

 of their native birds. 



Mr. Littler reckons the total number of absolutely 

 authenticated species, including accidentals, casuals, and 

 migrants, of all Orders for Tasmania at slightly over 200. 



