262 Recent Literature. [April 



retained for V. monachus, Sirix for the Barn Owls, Merganser and Mergus 

 for two different genera, Mycteria for the Jabiru, Tantalus for the Wood 

 Ibis, etc., etc. It is unfortunate that in such an excellent work as ' Die 

 Vogel', which could do so much towards uniformity in nomenclature, the 

 modern system should not be adopted. The classification is also conser- 

 vative and many generally accepted relationships are not admitted. The 

 Owls still remain among the Birds of Prey, the Pigeons and Sand Grouse 

 are separated by the Phasianidse, while the Gulls and Shore-birds are 

 widely separated, etc. 



An introduction covering pp. 1-67 treats briefly of structure, classifica- 

 tion, zoogeography, nomenclature etc. with a useful concordance of the 

 names of the various parts of a bird in Latin, German, English, French and 

 Itahan. 



Altogether ' Die Vogel ' promises to be one of the standard works of 

 reference on the birds of the world from the systematic standpoint, and 

 contains more information of this kind than any other book of the same 

 size — more probably than any other work except the ' British Museum 

 Catalogue ' or the still uncompleted ' Tierreich.' — W. S. 



' Oologia Neerlandica.' ' — The four parts of Mr. Van Pelt Lechner's 

 work which have appeared since our last notice bring this admirable 

 publication to completion. The unusually high standard of both plates and 

 letter press is fuUy maintained and the work will take its place as one of 

 the noteworthy publications dealing with birds' eggs — an example of 

 what can be done in scientific oological investigation. 



These parts deal largely with the Terns, Shore-birds, Rails, Herons, etc., 

 and the plates are particularly handsome. Some of them are identical with, 

 or very closely related to, American species and hence the discussion of the 

 coloration of their eggs and the characters by which they may be distin- 

 guished are of great interest to American oologists. StiU more interesting 

 however are the discussions of sheU layers of the Falconidse and other 

 groups and the generic characters which their coloration furnishes, Buteo 

 and Accipiter for instance have the first layer green and the second white, 

 while in Falco both are white, the latter colored superficially. In all the 

 Falconida; there is a third thin layer of mucus which bears spots in all the 

 genera mentioned. The author points out the errors that have resulted in 

 making gross comparisons between the eggs of certain species, when the 

 colorations compared arise from different shell layers and are therefore not 

 comparable. In comparing eggs of Colurnix and Perdix the author finds 

 that the spots on the eggs of the former are contained in a superficial layer 

 of glutin, under which is an unspotted layer, yellowish or grayish brown in 

 color, which corresponds with the surface layer of the Perdix eggs. The fun- 



» "Oologia Neerlandica" Eggs of Birds Breeding in the Netherlands. By 

 A. A. Van Pelt Lechner. Parts IV-VII. Jan., Aug., and Nov. 1913, and Feb., 

 1914. 



