iSga.] Rrceuf Literature. 18? 



Newton on ' Fossil Birds.'* — This is a hrieC siii-vev of our present 

 knowledge of tossil birds, the subject being treated in outline. It is, how- 

 ever, an important and instructive summary of the subject, presented by 

 an eminent authority. As indicated by the title, it formed one of the long 

 series ot important papers read at the Second International Congress held 

 last year at Budapest. — J. A. A. 



Sclater on the Geographical Distribution of Birds. f — In this paper of 

 some thirty-five pages. Dr. Sclater has summarized the recent progress in 

 our knowledge of the geographical distribution of birds, the period cov- 

 ered being mainly the interval since the publication of his well-known 

 address on Geographical Zoology delivered before the Biological Section 

 of the British Association at its meeting at Belfast in 1875. He biiefly re- 

 states, with some qualifications, his views then and previously set forth, 

 respecting the principal faunal regions and subregions of the earth's sur- 

 face, based on a study of the geographical distribution of birds, and notes, 

 passim, the leading recent authorities upon their ornithology. This is 

 followed by an appendix of eight pages, in which are given the titles of 

 the principal publications referred to, 125 in number. This list, with that 

 contained in his British Association Address, forms a most convenient 

 and useful guide to the more important works and papers bearing on the 

 special subject here treated. , 



As is well known. Dr. Sclater's division of the earth's surface into six 

 primary ontological divisions of coordinate value has been the subject of 

 criticism from many sources; yet, while practically admitting that some 

 other method of division might prove more in accordance with facts, he 

 expresses himself as in the main, " after more than thirty-five years close 

 attention to the subject," well satisfied with his own system, and believes 

 (with Wallace, whose adoption of his principal regions he "pomts out 

 with pride") that, in the words of Mr. Wallace, -'in geographical equality, 

 compactness of area, and facility of definition, they are beyond all compari- 

 son better than any others that have yet been proposed for the purpose of 

 facilitating the study of geographical distribution" — as though " practical 

 convenience," instead of the facts of distribution, were to be the deciding 

 test in favor of this or that author's scheme! Thus, as Dr. Sclater 

 says, many writers on zoo-geography have treated his " Nearctic Region 

 as merely a piece of the Palsearctic," and he admits that " there are, no 



* Fossil Birds. From the forthcoming "Dictionary of Birds." Delivered before the 

 Second International Ornithological Congress, on the 18 May, 1891, by Alfred New- 

 ton, M. A., Prof. Z06I. and Comp. Anat., etc., Cambridge, Magdalene College. 

 Budapest, published at the Office of the Congress, 1891, 4to, pp. 16. 



t The Geographical Distribution of Birds ; an Address delivered before the Second 

 International Ornithological Congress at Budapest, May, 1891, by Philip Lutiey Sclater 

 M. A., Ph. D., F R. S., Secretary to the Zoological Society of London. Budapest, 

 1891. Published at the Office of the Congress. 8vo., pp. 45. 



On Recent Advances in our Knowledge of the Geographical Distribution of Birds. 

 By P. L. Sclater, M. A., Ph. D., F. R. S. Ibis, Oct., 1891, pp. 514-557. 



