156 Notes and News. [| a u n k 



in 1883 and the other a revised edition x in 1915. In 1912 a 'Hand-List 

 of British Birds ' 2 was published independently by Hartert, Jourdain, 

 Ticehurst, and Witherby, all of whom were members of the B. O. U. 

 Several earlier lists have been published covering the same ground, among 

 which the more important are the 'Zoologist List' of 1870, Wharton's 

 List of 1877, Col. Irby's 'Key List' of 1892, and Seebohm's 'Geographic 

 Distribution of British Birds,' 1893. 



The Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union in 1913 published the 

 result of ten years' work of its committee in the form of an ' Official Check- 

 List of the Birds of Australia.' :! In addition to this there are at least three 

 other check lists all published by Gregory M. Mathews during the last 

 decade, viz. a 'Hand-list of the Birds of Australasia,' 1908, in ' The Emu,' 

 based on Sharpe's 'Hand List'; a 'Reference-list to the Birds of Australia' 

 in 'Novitates Zoological,' XVIII, 1912; and a 'List of the Birds of Australia,' 

 1913. Australia is thus unusually well supplied with recent lists of its 

 birds. 



Of lists of birds of other regions prepared by members of the Ornitholo- 

 gists' Unions several deserve mention in this connection. On the birds of 

 America Sclater and Salvin's 'Nomenclator Avium Neotropicalium,' 

 1873, as its name indicates, includes the birds of the Neotropical region; 

 Brabourne and Chubb's 'Birds of South America' appeared in 1912 ; 4 

 while Cory has begun the publication of an extensive 'Catalogue of Birds 

 of the Americas,' 5 covering the region from Patagonia to the North Pole — 

 of this the second volume (the only one thus far issued) was published 

 in 1918. For Europe, we have among others the 'List of the Birds of 

 Europe' by J. H. Blasius, reprinted from the German in 1862, and Dresser's 

 'List of European Birds' which bears the date of 1881. For the region 

 comprising the islands of the Pacific Ocean Wiglesworth's 'Aves Poly- 

 nesia?,' 1891, is the most comprehensive list. 



Among check lists of the birds of the world are G. R. Gray's 6 ' Hand-List 

 of Genera and Species of Birds,' in three parts, 1869-71; Boucard's 'Cata- 

 logus Avium,' 1876; and Sharpe's 'Hand-List of the Genera and Species 

 of Birds' in five volumes, 1899-1909. 



This brief enumeration of only a few of the more important lists of birds 

 of extensive regions includes three check lists that are world-wide in 

 scope, one covering North and South America, seven North America, 

 two South America, two Europe, seven the British Isles, four Australia, 

 and one Polynesia. Some of these lists now require revision and there is 

 room for greater uniformity of treatment of the subject and more catalogues 

 of birds of natural zoological areas such as Australia, the Neotropical 



i For a review see The Auk, XXXII, p. 243, 1915. 



2 For a review see The Auk, XXIX, p. 407, 1912. 



3 For a review see The Auk, XXX, p. 445, 1913. 



4 For a review see The Auk, XXX, p. 286, 1913. 



s For a review see The Auk, XXXV, p. 365, 1918. 

 6 G. R. Gray was not a member of the B. O. U. 



