1917-] Recently published Ornithological Works. 629 



evident that tliere are still numbers of items which must 

 have escaped the keen eyes of the authors. 



We are still of opiniou that a good many works have been 

 included which hardly deserve a place, and also that it 

 would have been wiser to have confined the biographies to 

 non-living authors, but we do not wish to quarrel with the 

 writers for giving us more than we bargained for. 



Of all the works on British ornithology undoubtedly the 

 most popular is Gilbert White's ' Selborne.' Mr. Mullens 

 has long been known as an authority on this subject, and 

 we find under the heading of Gilbert White a very full 

 account of his life and thirteen pages of bibliography. 

 Only one edition of ' The Natural History and Antiquities 

 of Selborne ^ was published in Whitens lifetime, but since 

 his death in 1793 some fortj^-two entirely distinct editions, 

 apart from reissues and reprints, have appeared testifying 

 to the popularity of the work. 



Many of the other older writers on British Birds such as 

 Ray, Pennant, Tunstall, and Merrett, about whom little or 

 nothing is generally known though their names are familiar, 

 are treated at length and render this work not only a most 

 useful book of reference, but also one which can be read 

 with great pleasure and interest for its own sake. 



Peters on a new Porto Rican Bird. 



[The Porto Rican Grasshopper Sparrow. By James L. Peters. 

 Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 30, 1917, pp. 95-96.] 



Mr. Peters finds that the Grasshopper Sparrow occurring 

 in Porto Rico is most closely allied to tliat of Jamaica 

 (Ammodramus savannarum savannarum) rather than to that 

 of Santo Domingo [A. s. intricatus), but that it is distinct 

 from both. He here proposes to name it A. s. borinquensis. 



Polialiov on Siberian Birds. 



[Birds collected by A. P. Velizhanin in the basin of the upper Irtysh. 

 By G. I, Poliakov. Reprinted from the Messager Oruith. pp. 1-13G 

 (in Russian). Moscow, 1915.] 



M. Poliakov sends us a reprint of his paper on the birds 



