Recently published Ornithological IVorks. 635 



by himself, Gaston de Gaal, Jacob Hegyfoky, and Jules 

 Pungur : shewing how contradictory many of the views 

 already put forward have been. He rightly lays stress upon 

 three important points : (1) the progress of migration, 

 (2) its connection with meteorology, (3) its causal impulse. 

 He suggests the organisation of an International Committee, 

 to indicate a place of observation, to ensure uniformity, and 

 to prevent such observations being local only. 



98. Journal of the South-African Ornithologists' Union. 



[The Journal of the South-African Ornithologists' Union. Vol. i. 

 No. 1. July 1905.] 



We have already recorded the establishment of an Orni- 

 thologists' Union in South Africa, and the intention of the 

 Union to start a Journal of their own (see supra, p. 141). 

 The first number of this Journal was issued in July last and 

 is now before us. Besides a Preface, signed by the three 

 editors (Messrs. W. L. Sclater, J. W. B. Gunning, and 

 J. A. Bucknill), it contains an account of the proceedings 

 connected with the formation of the Union, and the inaugural 

 address of the President (Mr. W. L. Sclater) delivered at 

 the Johannesburg meeting in April 1904. This address 

 relates to the work performed by Le Vaillant, Burchell, 

 Sir Andrew Smith, Andersson, Layard, and other leading 

 authorities on South-African Birds. 



Besides the Presidential Address, the first number of this 

 Journal contains four other papers, all relating to South- 

 African Birds. Major Sparrow gives us some supplementary 

 notes on the nesting-habits and eggs of certain birds described 

 in Stark and Sclater's new work on South-African Birds ; 

 Mr. F. J. Ellemor writes on the nest and eggs of Coliopasser 

 ardens ; Mr. G. C. Shortridge describes the birds which he 

 met with round Hanover, Cape Colony, and transmitted to 

 the South-African Museum ; and Mr. Austin Koberts con- 

 tributes an account of a visit to a nesting-place of the Sacred 

 Ibis (Ibis cethiopica) in the Transvaal near Balmoral, of which 

 he wisely withholds the exact locality. We have then an 

 obituarial notice of Mr. J. v. O. Marais, M.B.O.U., who 



