Recently published Ornitholoyical Works. 445 



the first two volumes of this excellent work Mr. Oates was 

 ordered back to India, and was consequently unable to 

 complete his task. Dr. Blanford, the general Editor of the 

 ' Fauna/ was therefore compelled to take the matter in hand 

 himself, and issued the third volume in 1895 (see ' Ibis,' 

 1896; p. 139). Dr. Blanford is also the author of the fourth 

 volume, which contains an account of the Columbae, Gallinse, 

 Hemipodii, Grallae, Limicolaej Gavise, Steganopodes, Tubi- 

 nares, Herodiones, Phoenicopteri, Anseres, and Pygopodes 

 of British India, 347 species in all. As in the preceding 

 volume^ the work is most carefully and correctly done, and 

 modern vagaries in nomenclature are not usually coun- 

 tenanced. We are pleased to observe that homonyms are 

 abjured and that the White- eyed Duck is called Nyroca 

 ferruginea (not N. africana !) and the Greenshank Totanus 

 glottis (not Glottis nebular ius \) . 



59. Chapman on Mexican Birds. 



[Notes ou Birds observed at Jalapa and Las Vigas, Vera Cruz, Mexico, 

 By Frank M. Chapman. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. x. p. 15.] 



Mr. Chapman commences his paper by calling attention 

 to the attractions offered to the naturalist by the western 

 coast of Vera Cruz, " bisected,'' as it is, by two lines of 

 railway, which, within a few hours, convey the traveller 

 from the tierra caliente through the tierra templada to the 

 tierra fria, which is reached at an altitude of some 5500 feet. 

 Here the palms and heliconias of the tropical zone and the 

 ferns and coffee-groves of the temperate zone are replaced 

 by forests of oaks and pines, which continue until the arid 

 alpine zone or the tierra fria seca is approached, at an alti- 

 tude of about 8000 feet. From this point to the city of 

 Mexico the treeless region of the great central plateau is 

 traversed. 



Mr. Chapman's collections were made in March and April 

 1897, at two places on the Mexican Railway between Vera 

 Cruz and Mexico — Jalapa and Las Viguas. Jalapa, at a height 

 of 4400 feet, is in the tierra templada, and it is now evident 

 that the collections formerly made by de Oca when resident 



SER. VII. VOL. IV. 2 H 



