Recently published Ornithological Works. 487 



been better assigned than to Mr. "W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, the 

 Member of the Zoological Department who " carried out 

 the arrangement of the Gallery in its present form." 



Entering the Bird-gallery from the Great Hall the visitor 

 will find the lowest forms of bird-life exhibited on the right- 

 hand side, and the highest on the left, so that he may begin 

 either at the bottom of the series and go upwards, or at the 

 top of the series and pass downwards, as he pleases. 



The " Guide " takes the former route, and, commencing 

 with the lowest members of the Avian series, proceeds 

 upwards through each of the 31 Orders and 147 Families 

 into which the Class of Birds is divided, and ends with the 

 " Passeriformes," which is the highest and most specialized 

 Order of the whole Class. The specimens exhibited are 

 lodged in 83 cases, and are labelled with numbers from 1 

 to 2840. The corresponding numbers in the " Guide" are 

 printed in large black type, so that there is no difficulty in 

 referring to them. The letterpress of the "Guide" will be 

 found to contain not only remarks on the essential characters 

 of the birds referred to, but also information as to their 

 habits, distribution, nests, eggs, and other particulars. 

 Thus, as the series of specimens is very nearly complete, we 

 have in the "Guide" a well-written and popular history of 

 the whole Class of Birds carefully brought together from 

 different authorities. To say that such a compilation of all 

 the principal facts known concerning the enormous Class of 

 Birds, which numbers some 13,000 or 14,01)0 species, is free 

 from errors would, of course, not be true, but as we turn 

 over the pages of the " Guide " we are able to notice but few 

 mistakes, and these mostly of a trivial character. On the 

 whole, we may well congratulate the author on having 

 produced a very useful piece of work which shews a wide 

 acquaintance with every part of his subject. 



After the description of the specimens exhibited in the 

 systematic series in the Bird-gallery, which is illustrated by 

 23 photographic plates prepared by the skilful hands of 

 Mr. R. B. Lodge, and occupies 136 pages, comes a descrip- 

 tion of the well-known and much-admired series of mounted 



