440 Recently published Ornitholoyical Works. 



XXXVIII. — Notices of recent Ornithological Publications. 

 [Continued from p. 310.] 



52. Andrews on a Skeleton o/ Megalapteryx. 



[On a Complete Skeleton oi Megalapteryx tenuipes in the Tring Museum, 

 By C. W. Andrews. Novitates Zool. iv. p. 188.] 



The well-preserved and nearly complete skeleton of 

 Megalapteryx tenuipes in the Tring Museum is described 

 and illustrated in this paper. It was discovered in a cave at 

 Pockeroy Nelson, in the South Island of New Zealand, about 

 1865. It is now certain that Megalapteryx is in all respects 

 Dinornithine, and does not belong to the Apterygidag. 



53. Annals of Scottish Natural History. 



[The Annals of Scottish Natural History, a Quarterly Magazine, with 

 which is incorporated ' The Scottish Naturalist.' No. 25, January 1898, 

 and No. 26, April 1898.] 



In No. 25, the first paper which comes within our scope 

 is one on the Minor Faunal Areas of Scotland, by Mr. J. A. 

 Harvie-Brown, who advocates the division (for the more 

 accurate study of such phenomena as those of distribution 

 and dispersal) of larger areas into smaller ones, and has 

 already given us an example of how this may be done in the 

 case of Scotland, which he has separated into " minor faunal 

 areas " from " topographical and faunal standpoints.'" In a 

 similar way he believes that England may be divided into 

 six or seven " Natural Faunal Areas,^"* of which the Rev. H. 

 A. Macpherson's " Lakeland " would be one. To do this 

 satisfactorily he points out that we require an " accumulation 

 of facts, combined with the ability to draw fairly accurate 

 deductions from them.'' Here is an excellent opening for 

 work for some of our many students of British bird-life. 

 May we venture to ask Mr. Harvie-Brown and others who 

 are writing on this subject to avoid the use of the dubious 

 term "watershed," which has been used in two senses, and 

 to employ in its stead either " water-basin " or " water- 

 parting" whichever they may mean. See Huxley's ' Physio- 

 graphy' on this point. 



Mr. W. Eagle Clarke follows with an article on Hybrids 

 between the Capercaillie and the Pheasant. Mr. Peter Adair 



