^°*i9if^^] -Recent Literature. 271 



I^efers to the wonderful aviaries of Mr. E. J. Brook at Hoddam Castle 

 where there were hving at one time twenty-three species of Paradise 

 and Bower Birds and where two have nested. 



Descriptions of two new Species and a new Genus of Australian Birds. 

 By Alfred J. North — NeosUta mortoni, Alcyone ramsayi and Trichodere 

 nov. gen. for Ptilotis cocker elli Gould. 



Field-Notes on a Collection of Birds from the Mediterranean. By 

 Commander H. Lynes. With Systematic Notes by H. F. Witherby. — 

 The nomenclature of this paper seems strangely out of place on the conserv- 

 ative pages of ' The Ibis.' Trinomials are used throughout but while the 

 editors allow such names as Emberiza calandra calandra and Chloris chloris 

 aurantiiventris, they take pains to explain in foot-notes that they are unable 

 to permit such a name as Petronia pelronia petronia and have stricken out 

 one of the repetitions! 



Under 'Letters and Notes.' Mr. Mathews makes another appeal to the 

 B. O. U. for the rejection of Brissonian Genera and for the transference 

 of Saxicola from the Wheatear to the Chats (Pratincola). In the latter 

 case he seems to entirely overlook the fact that the International Code does 

 not recognize type fixing by restriction except where a genus consists of 

 but two species (opinion 6). The first actual designation of a type for 

 Saxicola is by Gray, 1841, who designated S. cenanthe. 



Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. No. CLXXV. 



Hon. Walter Rothschild describes a new Cassowary, Casuarius keysseri 

 and discusses the relationships of the thirty species and subspecies now 

 known, of which by the way he has described exactly one half. There was 

 a general exhibition and discussion of Capercaille, Black Grouse and Pheas- 

 ants in which males were assuming female plumage and vice versa. Mr. 

 Witherby regarded the abnormal feathers as not exactly like those of the 

 opposite sex and suggested that the cause was probably not related to the 

 sexual organs. Mr. Pycraft thought that " the assumption of female 

 plumage by males was due to a lack of ' tone ' or vitahty at the time of 

 moulting." 



Journal fiir Ornithologie. LX. Heft. 1, January, 1912. Studies on 

 the Avifauna of Emsland. Dr. Edwin Detmers. 



The Distribution of the Genus Emberiza. Dr. H. Duncker. With maps 

 showing lines of dispersal of the various groups of species. 



The Zoologist. No. 847. January 15, 1912. 



The Prehistoric Origin of the Common Fowl. By Fredk. J. Stubbs and 

 A. J. Rowe. 



The Emu. January, 1912. Vol. XI, Part 3. 



Eleventh Session of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union. 



Bush Birds of New Zealand. By J. C McLean. Part III. 



Relative Dimensions of Red Blood Cells of Vertebrates, especially of 

 Birds. By J. Burton Cleland and F. Harvey Johnston. 



Avifauna of New South Wales Islands. By A . F. Basset Hull. Part II. 



Bird-Life in the Riverina. By Capt. A. S. White. 



