iSS6.'] Rece7it Literature. 26 C 



In regard to the other specimens mentioned in Mr. Grieve's Monograph, 

 I shall only note, that the specimen which formerly was in Mr. Nicolai 

 Aall's collection in Naes, near Arendal, Norway, is now in the Museum of 

 the University in Christiania, and that it has been remounted recently. 



Both in Blasius's list and in that of Mr. Grieve, the "Harvard University 

 Museum" {= Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass.) is 

 credited with the possession of two skeletons "prepared from mummy 

 Great Auks obtained at Funk Island, during 1864." Mr. J. A Allen, then 

 curator at the Museum, wrote me under March 18, 1885, as follows : — "We 

 have but one specimen of the Great Auk, and that is to be rated as a skele- 

 ton. It is, in reality, a so-called 'mummy,' and is from the Funk Islands. 

 Only a portion of the bones have yet been laid bare — one wing and one 

 leg — the rest is still covered with the dried flesh. In some unaccountable 

 way it is commonly and erroneously supposed that we have two of these 

 Great Auk mummies." 



Mr. Grieve's Monograph is accompanied by a 'Chart showing the sup- 

 posed distribution of the Great Auk or Garefowl.' We shall not pass an 

 opinion on the manner in which "the supposed limit of region in which 

 the Great Auk lived" hf\^ been drawn generally; but when the author 

 includes the entire Norwegian coast, from the Swedish frontier to North 

 Cape, with all its islands and fjords, he certainly has not been aware of 

 Prof. Robert Collett's investigations, who, as early as 1S72, in an 

 article written in the English language (Remarks on the Ornithology 

 of Northern Norway), showed that there was no conclusive evidence 

 of a single example of this species having occurred within the confines of 

 the country. Since then Prof. Collet has made it pi^obable, that the Gare- 

 fowl has really once been seen in Norway, but in a locality considerably 

 to the east of the limits of Mr. Grieve's map (Mitth. Ornith. Ver. Wien, 

 1884, Nos. 5 and 6). 



Altogether Mr. Grieve's book forms an attractive volume, full of inter- 

 est and useful information. But on looking over the long series of mono- 

 graphs and monographic essays devoted to the Great Auk, we are justified 

 in raising the question : Might not the time, ingenuity, and money invested 

 on them have been applied to other branches of ornithology with greater 

 results .'' Or, are there not questions of more importance to solve than 

 whether there are 78 or 79 skins of the Great Auk in existence.'' If the same 

 amount of painstaking scrutiny and exactness had been directed towards 

 elucidating geographical distribution, individual variation, etc. etc., the 

 benefit to our science might have been considerably greater. — L. S. 



Meves on the Size and Color of the Eyes of European Birds. — We have 

 just received what appears to be a book filling a gap in ornithological 

 literature, viz., Wilhelm Meves's List of European Birds* with indications 



* Die Grosse und Farbe der Augen aller Europaischen Voge), sowie der in der 

 palaearctischen Region vorkommenden Arten in systematischer Ordnung nach 

 Carl J. Sundevall's Versuch einer natiirlichen Aufstellung der Vogelklasse von 

 Wilhelm Meves. Halle a. S., Verlag von Wilhelm Schliiter. (No date on title page, 

 but preface dated "Januar 1886.") Bvo., pp. iv + 74. 



