122 Recent Literature. [^^^ 



making such satisfactory progress, the author having thus far well kept 

 his promise to bring out the work in quarterly parts till completed. — 

 J. A. A. 



Shelley's ' Birds of Africa.'^ — This work on the Birds of Africa, by an 

 author so well known as Captain Shelley, promises to be one of the 

 most important of recent faunal publications on ornithology. The work 

 has for its scope all of Africa south of i° N. lat., and Madagascar. The first 

 volume, published in 1896, consists of a list of the species and higher 

 groups, and may be called, as the author says, a ' Nomenclator Avium 

 ^^thiopicarum.' The nuinber of species is 2534, and includes the generic 

 synonymy and references to the authorities for the species names as 

 adopted, to the British Museum ' Catalogue of Birds,' and to works where 

 the species have been figured. The list begins with the Passeres, or 

 Passeriformes, and ends with the Struthioniformes. 



Volume II was issued in two parts during the year 1900. In the preface 

 to this volume the author states, after some remarks on the classification 

 adopted, his method of treatment to be as follows : " With regard to the 

 synonymy of the species : I begin with what I consider to be the most cor- 

 rect name; quote the 'Catalogue of the Birds of the British Museum,' 

 where full synonymy is given in detail, and add only such references 

 which have not appeared in that great work. I follow on with a descrip- 

 tion of the plumage, taken, when possible, from the specimens in the 

 British Museum, ....and finish with all the details I can find regarding 

 the distribution and habits of the species which I consider to be of interest. 

 The colored plates are intended to illustrate, in the best possible style,. 

 .... all the hitherto unfigured, or incorrectly figured, species" of the 

 yEthiopian Region. The fourteen plates in volume I illustrate 29 species,, 

 and are of a high grade of excellence. The heavy paper and clear and 

 pleasing typography of the text leave nothing to be desired in the way of 

 book-making. 



Volume II gives descriptions and biographies of 169 species, beginnings 

 with the genus Pitta and ending with Anthus, and includes keys for the 

 higher groups as well as for the species. The biographical matter is 

 naturally variable in amount, being quite extended in the case of well- 

 known species, and necessarily meagre in others. 



1 The I Birds of Africa, | comprising all the species which occur | in the | 

 Ethiopian Region. | By | G. E. Shelley, F. Z. S., F. R. G. S., &c. | (late Gren- 

 adier Guards), | Author of ' A Handbook to the Birds of Egypt ', ' Monograph 

 of the Sun-birds,' etc. | — | Vol. I. | List. | — | London: | Published for the 

 Author by | R. H. Porter, iS Princes Street, Cavendish Square, W. — 4to,, 

 Vol. I, 1896, pp. i-viii -^- 1-196; Vol. II, Part i, 1900, pp. 1-160, pll. i-vii ; 

 Part 2, 1900, pp. i-vii -|- 161-348, pll. viii-xiv. Price, Vol. I, los 6d net ; each, 

 part of Vol. II, 21s net. 



