558 Recently published Omittioloyical Works. [Ibis, 



T)r. Mj(")berg, an entomologist, on an exploring and collecting 

 expedition to Australia. Ke spent some ten months in the 

 northern tropical portion of Western Australia, in the 

 neighbourhood of Derby and Hroome, and in this paper 

 he gives us the results of his observations. Mr. Scklerberg 

 "wisely devoted a great deal of his attention to such subjects 

 as the movements or partial migrations of birds, due to the 

 wet and dry seasons ; to the eflt'ects of discoloration produced 

 by the extreme dryness of the summer season; to moult, 

 which, like nesting, takes place at varying times of year, 

 and is by no means so fixed to certain definite periods as in 

 the temperate regions of Europe. He also made studies 

 of the nesting-habits of many birds and the methods they 

 adopt for combating their enemies, which appear to be 

 chiefly egg-sucking lizards. All these matters are dealt 

 with in a most suggestive and interesting way in the general 

 portion of the paper. This is followed by the list of the 

 species obtained, with notes on the juvenai plumage, moult, 

 ecology, and other matters of interest. 



The paper is of considerable importance, and should not 

 be missed by anyone who takes an interest in the problems 

 of the desert fauna of Australia. It is written in English. 



Swarth on the genus Passerella. 



[Revision of the avian genus Passerella, with special reference to the 

 distribution and migration of the races in California. By H. S. Swarth. 

 University of California Pabl. in Zoology, vol. 21, 1920, pp. 75-224; 

 4 pis., 30 text-figs., including many maps.] 



The genus Passerella contains a number of Sparrow-like 

 birds, commonly known in America as Fox-Sparrows. All 

 the forms are included under one species, P. iliaca, of which 

 Mr. Swarth recognises sixteen races, including the typical 

 one. All the races breed in the far north or at considerable 

 elevations, while the typical race has a very wide distribu- 

 tion, breeding from Alaska to Newfoundland and visiting in 

 winter the middle and southern States east o( the llocky Mts. 

 The other fifteen breed along the western portion of the 

 continent from the Alaska Peninsula through British 



