J892.] fiecent Literatiiye. 1 8^ 



Hartert's Catalogue of the Birds in the Museum of the Senckenberg 

 Natural History Society.* — The bird collection of the Senckenberg Mu- 

 seum contains much liistoric material, as shown in the author's account 

 of the origin and growth of this important collection, which appears to 

 number nearly 4000 species. The collection was begun in 1820, through 

 the purchase of the collections of the well-known ornithologists Wolf and 

 Meyer, consisting chiefly of birds of Central Europe. Subsequently was 

 added the greater part of Riippell's collection from northeastern Africa, 

 and many from various noted South American expeditions, as well as 

 from other liistoric sources. Mr. Hartert considers it necessary to recognize 

 subspecies, and freely adopts trinomials for their designation. He ac- 

 cepts the tenth edition of Linux's 'Systema Natune' as the starting point 

 of nomenclature, and considers that strict adherence to the principle of 

 priority is the only way to secure stability of names. He is thus in hearty 

 accord with the recent innovations in respect to principles of nomencla- 

 ture reflected in the A. O. U. Code and so emphaticallj' endorsed by the 

 International Ornithological Congress held last vear at Budapest. 



The 'Catalogue' is a systematic list of the species (without synonymy) 

 in the Museum, with a record of the specimens by which each species is 

 i-epresented, with sex and locality, and apparently the exact date of collec- 

 tion when this is known. Qiiestions of nomenclature and other technical 

 matters are discussed in foot-notes, frequently at considerable length. 

 These give to the 'Catalogue' an interest and importance to the general 

 ornithologist far beyond that of a mere catalogue of the species and spec- 

 imens contained in the museum to which it relates. Were we disposed 

 to be hypercritical we might ask why, in a number of cases, certain names 

 were adopted and others rejected, since the rulings are clearlv at vari- 

 ance with the principle of priority. We fancy, however, these few cases 

 are due to oversight, or from lack of time to personally verify all the 

 points at issue in a work of this magnitude, when we read that the re- 

 vision of the collection and the preparation of the Catalogue was per- 

 formed in the short space of nine and a half months! (see p. vii). — 

 J. A. A. 



Leverkiihn's 'Fremde Eier im Nest.' f — Dr. Leverkiihn's 'Eggs of 

 another bird in the nest' is an exhaustive treatment of what at first sight 

 seems an unimportant and not especially interesting subject, but with 

 true German patience and minuteness he has brought together a surpris- 

 ing amount of information, much of which has an interesting bearing on 

 the habits and behavior of birds under unusual circumstances in respect 

 to the imposition of other birds' eggs in their nests. 



*Katalog des Vogelsammlung im Museum der Senckenbergischen Naturforschen- 

 den Gesellschaft in Frankfurt am Main. Von Ernst Hartert. Januar 1891. Frank- 

 furt a. M. 8vo. pp. xxii, 259. 



fFremde Eier im Nest. Ein Beitrag zur Biologie der Vogel, von Paul Leverkiihn. 

 Nebst einer Bibliographischen Notiz iiber Lottinger. 1891. Berlin, Wien, Leiden, 

 London, Paris, and New York. Bvo. pp. xi, 212. 



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