406 Notes and News. au 
WE ARE glad to be able to announce that the second volume of the 
late Dr. Stark’s ‘ Birds of South Africa’ (R. H. Porter, London) is being 
prepared for publication by Mr. W. L. Sclater, from materials gathered 
by Dr. Stark. As shown by our notice of the first volume (Auk, XVII, 
pp- 190, 191), the work is a most important contribution to the ornithol- 
ogy of South Africa. 
The same publisher will also soon bring out the second part of Volume 
II of G. E. Shelley’s ‘ Birds of Africa,’ thus completing the work, of 
which Volume I appeared in 1896, and Part I of Volume II in 1900. An 
extended notice of this important work will be given later. 
A NEw work on ‘The Birds of Ireland,’ by Richard J. Ussher and 
Robert Warren, is announced by Gurney & Jackson (London), in one 
volume, demy octavo, of 450 pages, with 7 plates, 2 maps and other illus- 
trations. Price, £1 10s. Special attention is given to the distribution 
of each species in Ireland, and also to its seasonal movements within 
the Island. 
Tue AuSTRALIAN Museum, Sydney, will soon issue, as ‘Monograph 
No. II,’ the ‘Catalogue of Nests and Eggs of the Birds of Australia,’ by 
Mr. Alfred J. North, Ornithologist to the Australian Museum. This work 
was first published by the Trustees of the Australian Museum in 1889 as 
No. XII of their series of ‘ Catalogues, but being now out of print, the 
Trustees have decided to issue a new work in an enlarged form by the 
same author. There will be representations of about 600 eggs on 30 full- 
sized plates and arrangements are being made to have them hand-colored 
for those who desire it. 
Some of the nests and breeding haunts of the birds will also be shown 
on full-sized plates, but the greater number will be interspersed among 
the text, where also a large number of the birds themselves will be fig- 
ured. The photographs, from which the plates representing the nests are 
made, have mostly been taken by the author personally, many of them 7% 
situ, and show the actual surroundings of the birds’ homes. The black 
and white drawings of the birds are by Mr. Neville Cayley, so well known 
for his life-like drawings and paintings of birds. The letterpress will con- 
tain descriptions of the birds, their nests, eggs and haunts, and an account 
of their life history. The preparation of the plates is now well advanced. 
The work will be issued in parts, and the price to subscribers will prob- 
ably not exceed 25s. for the complete work uncolored. Orders may be 
sent to the Librarian of the Australian Museum, Sydney, N. S. W., or 
to Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co., London, “or any Booksellers.” 
THOsE interested in the sanitation of birds’ nests will find an interest- 
ing communication in the magazine ‘Knowledge’ for March, 1900 
(p. 66), by Mr. Harry F. Witherby, entitled ‘Mistle Thrush swallowing 
Droppings of Young’ 
