^"''loS''"^] R^'^^^^ Literature. 91 



Mathews' ' The Birds of Australia.' ^ — With Volume V, Mr. Mathews 

 begins the consideration of tlie hawks and eagles. These being conspicuous 

 land birds have long engaged the attention of Australian ornithologists, 

 and he is able to compile a much gi-eater amount of information regarding 

 their habits than was possible in connection with the families of water birds 

 which have occupied the greater part of the preceding volumes. This 

 fact however, in no way serves to curtail the very full discussion of tax- 

 onomy and nomenclatm'e that has marked Mr. Mathews' work. He opens 

 with an extended historical review of the classification of the Falconiformes 

 in which, by the way, we find no reference to the publications of Robert 

 Ridgway upon this subject, which surely deserve mention even though 

 they did not cover the entii-e field. Following this is a discussion of the 

 generic names of Lacepede's ' Tableaux ' (1799). These were accompanied 

 by diagnoses but with no species cited. The diagnoses are not full enough 

 to enable us to determine with certainty what hawks he had in mind. 

 Daudin however, in the Didot edition of Buff on (1802) republished Lace- 

 pede's diagnoses and cited several species after each, using his generic 

 names. Mr. Mathews rejects Lacepede's names as nomina nuda and 

 quotes the genera from Daudin " ex Lacepede." This is an easy way out 

 of the trouble, but we do not think it is justified. Lacepede's names are 

 not nomina nuda since they are accompanied by diagnoses. They are 

 unidentifiable if we choose to so regard them, but in that case they preclude 

 the use of the same names by any subsequent author just as do any other 

 unidentifiable names. It seems to us that in such cases we must accept 

 Daudin's action as a definite identification of Lacepede's names, but the 

 names must, if used at aU, date from Lacepede, 1799. The result is of course 

 the same as that arrived at by Mr. Mathews, but does not conflict with the 

 International Code. 



Mr. Mathews treatment of subspecies in this volume is not quite clear. 

 He puts them in the synonymy of the species and then tabulates them in 

 the closing paragraphs without clearly distinguishing those \yhich he 

 regards as valid and those whicfh are probably not. 



We note the following new names proposed: subgenera; Paraspizias 

 (p. 74) for Sparvius cirrhocephalus, and Ictiniastur (p. 146) for Milvus 

 sphenurus; subspecies; Circus assimilis quirindus (p. 23) Celebes; and 

 Accipiter cirrhocephalus quoesitandus (p. 81) Cape York. 



We have heard a good deal about the destruction of hawks in this coun- 

 try but our efforts are apparently eclipsed in Australia, where bonuses 

 were paid in 1899 for the slaughter of 7865 Wedge-tailed Eagles, while 

 as late as 1903, 1060 of the same species were poisoned in eight months 

 at one station. There is some justification in this slaughter as the birds 

 are very injm-ious to lambs, but let us hope that this fine bird may be saved 

 from absolute extermination! — ^W. S. 



1 The Birds of Australia. By Gregory M. Mathews, Vol. V, Part 1. Witherby 

 & Co. London. November 5, 1915, pp. 1-152, pi. 234-244. 



