614 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



During his recent examination of the specimens of Horn- 

 bills in the Leyden Museum Dr. Finsch has found examples 

 of two new species. One of them is a representative form, 

 from Northern Luzon, of the Philippine genus Penelopides, 

 proposed to be called P. talisi. The other belongs to the 

 African genus Ortholophus, and has hitherto been confounded 

 with P. albocristatus. Dr. Finsch has named it 0. cassini. 

 It comes from Gaboon and Cameroon. 



119. Fuerbringer on the Genealogy of Birds. 



[Beitrag zur Genealogie unci Systematik der Voegel. By Max Fuer- 

 bringer. Jenaische Zeitschrift f. Naturwiss. xxxvi. (1902) pp. 587-736.] 



Fourteen years have elapsed since Professor Fuerbringer's 

 two gigantic volumes ' Untersuchungen zur Morphologie und 

 Systematik der Voegel ' were issued. In 1902 he published 

 in the ' Jenaische Zeitschrift ' a condensed account of that 

 monumental work, and the present ' Beitrag ' of 150 pages 

 is a reprint of the genealogical and systematic observations. 

 It contains an additional list of almost everything that has 

 been written on the subject since 1888 ; not exactly a biblio- 

 graphy, since only the names of the authors, with date, and 

 one or two catchwords concerning the organs and groups 

 of birds described, are mentioned. The importance of the 

 present work lies in the fact that the discussions of the 

 systematic position and the mutual affinities of the various 

 groups, have been brought up to date, but it is almost 

 entirely an historical review, with only here and there a 

 definite cricicism of what has been done since 1888. The 

 result is that, with a few slight modifications, the author 

 stands by his system, as elaborated in his great work. 



There is a long disquisition on the "Ratite question." 

 They are a polyphyletic assembly, and are now divided into 

 two groups — "Longi-humerales," viz. Struthio and Rhea, 

 which are the oldest, and are derived, independently, from 

 somewhere out of the Order Pelargornithes, and Brevi- 

 humerales: Casuarii, JEpyornithes, and Apterygiformes. On 

 p. 670 we are told that the Apteryges and Dinornithes have 

 really very little in common with the Ralli, but that their 



