Recently published Ornithological Woi'ks. 369 



trouble has been spared to make the ' Monograph of the 

 Petrels ' as perfect as possible. 



36. Hagmann on the Birds of Mexiana. 



[Die Vogelwelt der Insel Mexiaua. Von Gottfried Hagmanu. Zool. 

 Jahrb., Bd. xxvi. Hft. i. (1907).] 



The Island of Mexiana, which helps to block the mouth of 

 the mighty Amazon as it struggles to reach the Atlantic, is 

 classical ground to the ornithologist, as having been one of 

 the collecting-spots of Mr. Wallace when he first went to 

 South America in 1848. Dr. Gottfried Hagmann (lately 

 one of the staff of the Goeldi Museum in Para) passed three 

 months on it in the autumn of 1902, and made a collection of 

 242 birds belonging to 97 species. Again, in July 1904, he 

 visited the island, and remained there until January 1906, 

 so that he had excellent opportunities for the study of its 

 avifauna. These opportunities have enabled him to prepare 

 the memoir now before us, in which will be found a complete 

 account of the birds, so far as they are known to us at 

 the present time. 



Dr. Hagmann commences with a general description of 

 the island, which lies just under the Equator and is bordered 

 by the sea on the north side. But though it is subject to 

 the ebb and flow of the Atlantic tide the water round it is 

 always fresh, owing to the enormous outpour of the Amazon. 

 As is shown by the well-drawn maps given in the text, 

 Mexiaua is of a nearly oval shape, about 55 kil. in length 

 and 28 kil. in breadth. It is of entirely alluvial formation, 

 and hardly anywhere rises more than 1^ metres above the 

 sea-level. The " campo " of the centre of the island is 

 bordered all round by a growth of underwood with very varied 

 vegetation and is mostly covered by grass, interspersed with 

 many patches of wood and numerous palms of different 

 species, besides other fine forest-trees. The island is well 

 watered by numerous streams Qslledilgarapes, which rise and 

 fall with the tide, aud often form swamps at their junctions. 

 Altogether it is an ideal place for bird-life of every sort. 



After a general disquisition on the birds and the various 



