550 Recent Literature. [oct. 



The high standard set in Volume I is maintained in the parts before us, 

 both plates and letter press being beautifully executed, while the history, 

 synonymy and relationship of the various species are treated at length. 

 As Mr. Mathews states in the preface to Volume I, the accounts of the life 

 history of some species are necessarily meagre on account of the lack of 

 reUable information; a condition that is famiUar to compilers of life his- 

 tories of birds in other countries as well as Australia, and one that should 

 be constantly remembered by field ornithologists. Mr. Mathews' work 

 may leave Uttle to be said on the systematic side of Australian ornithology 

 but the members of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union will still 

 have a wide field open to them in completing the accounts of the life and 

 habits of their birds. 



The recently rediscovered Solander manuscripts are reprinted as well as 

 other matter relative to the early descriptions and discoveries of Petrels, and 

 as is usual in the author's investigations he finds quite a number of races 

 which he regards as separable, many of them from outside of AustraUan 

 waters. 



We note the following new forms described in the parts now before us. 

 In part 1: Oceanites oceanicus exasperalus, New Zealand Seas; Oceanites 

 nereis couesi, Kerguelen Isl.; 0. n. chnbbi, Falkland Isl.; Pelagodroma 

 marina dulcice, W. Australia; P. m. maoriana, Chatham and Aukland Isls.; 

 P. m. howei, E. Austraha; Fregetta tubulata, ' Gould ' ms., Australian 

 coast; Puffinus couesi, CaUfornian coast; P. assimilis kempi, Chatham 

 Isls.; P. a. tunneyi, W. AustraUan, P. Iherminieri boydi, Cape Verde Isls.; 

 P. I. becki, Culpepper and Wenman Isls., Galapagos; P. I. nugax, 'Sol- 

 ander' ms., Queensland; Puffinus reinholdi, New Zealand; P. r. huttoni, 

 Snares Isl., N. Z. P. pacificus hamiltoni, Seychelles; P. p. alleni, San 

 Benedicto Coast of CaUfornia; P. p. laysani, Laysan; P. p. royanus, E. 

 Austraha; P. carneipes hullianus, Norfolk Isl.; P. c. hakodate, Japan; P. c. 

 carbonarius 'Solander' ms.; Procellaria cequinoctialis mixta, Cape Seas; P. 

 a. sie.adi. New Zealand; P. a. brabournei, West Coast, S. A. In part 2: 



Pagodroma confusa. Cape Adare, Victoria Land; Macronectes giganteua 

 solanderi, Falkland Isls.; M. g. halli, Kerguelen Isl.; M. g. wilsoni, Ross 

 Sea; M. g. forsteri, west coast of South America; Prion vitlaius keyteli, 

 Tristan d'Acunha, P. v. goiddi, Bass Strait; P. v. macgillivrayi, St. Paul's, 

 Indian Ocean; P. v. missus, W. Austraha; Pseudoprion turtur eatoni, Ker- 

 guelen; P. t. solanderi, west coast South America; P. t. huttoni, Chatham 

 Isls. ; P. t. crassirostris. Bounty Isls. ; Heieroprion belcheri, coast of Victoria; 

 H. desolatus mattingleyi, E. Australian Seas; H. d. perrugneyi, Cape Seas; 

 H. d. macquariensis, Macquairie Isl.; H. d. alter, Auckland Isls. Three 

 new genera are proposed as follows Fregettornis, type Fregetta grallaria; 

 Nesofregetta, type F. moestissima; Heteroprion, type H. belcheri. 



Mr. Mathews points out that Fregetta leucogaster Gould should replace 

 F. grallaria Vieill. in the A. O. U. Check-List, the two being separable and 

 the latter restricted to Austrahan waters. Puffinus auricularis Towns. 

 he regards as identical with P. opisthomelas Coues, while the bird generally 



