Recent Ornithological Publications. 133 



iu a form more accessible to naturalists ; for, notwithstanding the 

 liberality of the Counts Turati, these splendid volumes must neces- 

 sarily be beyond the reach of all but the the most wealthy 

 cultivators of our science, unless they live near some great 

 library. It will be remembered that when we before noticed 

 this work, we remarked on what seemed to us to be a novel 

 statement with regard to Anthus richardi. The probable meaning 

 of this has since been explained by our contributor, Mr. Howard 

 Saunders (Ibis, 1869, p. 392) . 



Signor de Betta's Notes and Observations on the appearance 

 of certain birds in Venetia*, though published several years 

 since, have not long reached us. They treat of a most interest- 

 ing subject and one too much neglected by many ornithologists; 

 but we should have wished that the author had, according to the 

 title of his Essay, dwelt more on the causes which prompt the 

 extraordinary and accidental visits of alien birds. It may, how- 

 ever, be well urged that on this point no one knows much, and 

 it is only by the careful compilation and collection of facts that 

 any of us can ever hope to know more. Regarded in this light 

 the present work is useful, for it brings together records of the 

 occurrence in Northern Italy of birds from almost all points of 

 the compass, and certainly contains a good deal of interesting 

 matter. 



The paper by Dr. Salvadori to which allusion has been made 

 above (p. 121) is a very careful revision of the genus Ceijx, 

 published in the ' Atti delle Reale Accademia delle Scienze 

 di Torino ' (iv. pp. 44-0-476) and contains much more biblio- 

 graphical matter than that of Mr. Sharpe (P. Z. S. 1868, pp. 587- 

 599), so as to be indeed what it professes, a monograph of the 

 group. As already mentioned the author proposes a new genus 

 Ceycopsis (p. 447, note) for the Dace/o /«//«,r of Schlegel (Nederl. 

 Tijdschr. Dierk. iii. p. 187), which is allied to Ceyx, but possesses 

 a small additional (inner) toe — a better reason, we should say, 



* Sulla straordinaria od accidentale Comparsa di alcune specie di Uc- 

 celli nelle Provincie Venete e suUe cause rispettive Note ed Osservazioni 

 di Edoaedo de Betta, Venezia : 1865. 8vo, pp. 32. (Separately printed 

 from ' Atti deir Istituto Veneto di Scieuze/ vol. x. ser 3.) 



