52 



to Laniidce tlie road is bridged by Falcunculus, and probably here will have to come 

 some of tbe aberrant Liotriches, wbicb are most puzzling birds to locate. We follow 

 Mr. Gates in placing them as Timeliine birds, but both our family Timeliidce of the 

 ' Catalogue' and Mr. Oates's family Crateropodidcs have too ample limits. 



" The Vireomdo', according to Dr. Shufeldt, are more Mniotiltine than Laniine, and 

 the importance of their form of bill has been exaggerated, while the Lrmiidcs have got 

 such remarkable osteological characters that Ur. Shufeldt has put them on the 

 boundary of his Passeres. Mr. Gates, for quite other reasons, also puts them 

 far from the Paridcs. Whether our position for the Shrikes is natural is a fair 

 subject for discussion, our chief objection to it being that it separates the SylviidcB 

 so far from the MniotiUidfB in the linear series. Once, however, that we have passed 

 this break in the natural order, and we arrive at the Sylviidce, the affinities of the 

 TurdidcB, CincUdce, and Troglodytidce are evident, the Accentors are probably rightly 

 placed in proximity, and the Timeliidce in their comprehensive sense follow. The 

 affinities of some of these birds with the Muscicapidce are closer than would be 

 imagined ; but Mr. Gates's favourite character of the spotted young is of great use in 

 determining the limits of these two families." 



Quite recently has been issued the ' Nomenclator Musei Heineani 

 Ornitliologiei/ by Dr. Ferdinand Heine and Dr. Anton Reichenow, 

 wbicb, tbougb it bears the date " 1882-1890/' was to all intents and 

 purposes only published last year. I myself had never heard of the 

 work until it appeared in its completed form. This "^Nomenclator' 

 brings once again before our notice the Ornithological Museum which 

 has been formed by Ferdinand Heine the elder at Halberstadt. Not 

 only is it one of the most famous private collections of birds (5187 

 species and nearly 12,000 specimens), but it will also be celebrated to 

 all posterity as having furnished the material from which arose much of 

 the fame of our venerable colleague, Dr. Cabanis. To us at the present 

 day, this new presentment of the contents of Heine's Museum is espe- 

 cially interesting, as it is the latest amplification of the systems of 

 Dr. Cabanis in the original 'Museum Heineanum/ and of Dr. Reiclie- 

 now in the ' Vogel der Zoologischen Garten.' Remembering, too, the 

 good work done in times past by Ferdinand Heine, the son of the 

 founder of the * Museum Heineanum,' it is pleasing to see that he has 

 not lost his interest in Ornithology, but that on the contrary he has 

 -joined with Dr. Reichenow in the publication of the ' Nomenclator.' 

 The exact share of the two authors in the latter work is not stated, but 

 there is apparently more Heine than Reichenow in it. A comparison 

 of the system adopted in this work shows that some modifications have 

 been introduced into the arrangement of the ' Museum Heineanum ' 

 since its first publication (1850-63). Heine is a purist of purists, 

 but whether ornithologists will follow him to the bitter end which 

 he advocates remains to be seen. 



Speaking for myself, although I feel a kind of satisfaction at seeing 

 the unclassical names of Bonaparte (immortalized as the inventor of such 

 names as Moquinus tandonus, BIythipicus, Lichtensteinipicus, Graydi- 



