1 91 7-] Recently published Ornithological Works. 253 



only thirty-two, and Mr. Despott is rather gloomy about 

 the future of some of these even, so unrestricted has hecn 

 the destruction of bird-life among the Maltese sportsmen ! 



Through the efforts of Mr. Despott a new set of regulations 

 for preventing the destruction of birds has recently been 

 drawn up and promulgated, which if made effective would 

 certainly have helped to preserve and increase the number 

 of birds in Malta. Unfortunately, after a somewhat acrimo- 

 nious debate in the Government Council on the subject, the 

 promulgation of the regulations appears to have been post- 

 poned for six months owing to the objections raised by the 

 unofficial members of the Council, while the Lieut. Governor 

 and the Crown Advocate spoke very strongly in favour of 

 the regulations. It is to be hoped that some means may be 

 found to settle the question favourably to the bird-life of 

 Malta, and that Mr. Despott and his friends will eventually 

 succeed in their efforts. 



We have to thank Mr. Despott for a copy of the proposed 

 regulations and for an account of the debate in the Council 

 taken from the Daily Malta Chronicle. 



Matheivs on the Birds of Australia. 



[The Birds of Australia. By Gregory M. Mathews. Vol. vi. 

 pts. 1, 2, pp. 1-104, 105-216, pis. 267-28L', 283-290. London 

 (Witherby), Febr. 1917. 4to.] 



The first pages of the present instalment of this work are 

 devoted to a thorough, and to our mind most interesting, 

 discussion of the classification and nomenclature of the 

 Psittaciformes, or Parrot-alliance, which is supplemented 

 under the several genera and especially iTa^a/oe. Mr. Mathews 

 takes us back to the times of the early voyages in the Pacific, 

 Dampier, Cook, and others ; and follows with a consideration 

 of the writings of Banks, Shaw, Latham, Temminck, Kuhl, 

 Vigors, and Horsfield, which lead up to those of later autho- 

 rities on Parrots, such as Finsch and Salvadori. He finds 

 the Watling drawings of comparatively little assistance. 



Linnseus placed all forms under the single genus Psittacus, 

 but this was soon subdivided ; G. R. Gray, for instance, 



