146 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



cliiefly in British Central Africa, and the species in the list 

 are mostly the same as those recorded in Capt. Shelley's 

 various papers on the birds of that country. 



25. Pycraft on the Gular Pouch of the Bustard. 



[The Gular Pouch of the Great Bustard {Otis Urda). By W. Pycraft. 

 Nat. Sc. xiii. p. 313. Nov. 1898.] 



In this article Mr. Pycraft gives a good review of the 

 literature (beginning in 1681 !) on the vexed question of the 

 gular pouch of the Great Bustard, and adds his own testi- 

 mony on the subject, based upon the examination of the fine 

 adult male of this species lately living in the Zoological 

 Society's Gardens. In this specimen there can be no doubt 

 that a pouch existed, and, as will be seen by the full-page 

 figure (p. 321), a very large one. 



The bird died in May last in the middle of its period of 

 sexual excitement, of which the gular pouch is manifestly an 

 accompanying phenomenon, possibly developed only during 

 this season, and serving to help the bird to assume the extra- 

 ordinary attitudes it adopts when courting. 



The mounted specimen of the pouch will shortly be 

 exhibited in the Bird-gallery of the British Museum, 



26. Ramsay and North on the Birds of the Australian 

 Museum. 



[Catalogue of the Australian Birds in the Australian Museum, Sydney, 

 N.S.W. Parts I. <&; II. : Accipitres and Strig-es. By E. P. Ramsay, 

 LL.D. Second Edition, with Additions, by A. J. North, C.M.Z.S. 8vo. 

 Sydney, 1874-98.] 



This is a second edition of the first two parts of the 

 * Catalogue of Birds in the Australian Museum, Sydney,' 

 which were prepared and published by the late Mr. Ramsay, 

 the former in 1874 and the latter in 1890. The catalogues 

 have been revised and brought up to date by Mr. A. J. 

 North, Ornithologist to the Museum. The Australian 

 Accipitres, treated of in Part I., are 28 in number; the 

 Striges, in Part II., are 16. Full synonymies and descrip- 

 tions are given of all the species, as also the exact localities 

 of all the specimens in the IVIuseum, 



