506 Recent Ornithological Publications. 



of Bonaparte are also rejected, the first being reunited to Capita, 

 and the last two merged in Megala&ma. The Capitonidce may 

 be divided primarily and, perhaps we may say, provisionally into 

 three subfamilies : — PogonorkynchincB, represented in America 

 and Africa, MegalmnincB, in Africa and Asia, and Capitunince, 

 common to all those continents. But to speak of the ' Mono- 

 graph' itself; the letterpress has obviously been worked at with 

 much care, and we certainly cannot point out any available 

 soux'ce of information which the authors have neglected. If, 

 notwithstanding this, there are persons so hard to please as to 

 be discontented at its being somewhat meagre, they ought to 

 remember that the fault does not lie at the door of the Messrs. 

 Marshall — who themselves have had considerable personal ex- 

 perience of at least the Indian species, and contribute some in- 

 teresting and unrecorded facts as to the economy. The illus- 

 trations, as usual with those of Mr. Keulemans, show that they 

 have been drawn by a close observer of live birds, and are 

 beautifully coloured. It grieves us to say that with all this the 

 printer has performed his task ill ; and the authors, naturally 

 more conversant with types of another sort, have not been able 

 to correct his blunders. 



The value of Mr. Sharpe's ' Alcedinidce' * is so widely known 

 that there is the less need for us to say much of it here — more 

 especially, too, as we should have no chance (even if we wished) 

 of deluding our readers into the belief that in this case the critic 

 knows more of the subject than the author. The work goes 

 on as it was begun, and the three parts now before us deserve 

 all that we have before said of their predecessors (Ibis, 1869, 

 p. 215, et supra, p. 121). We cannot abstain from noticing 

 the very suggestive difference in style of coloration observable 

 in the young and old of the rare Alcedo euryzona, and we sus- 

 pect Mr. Sharpe has hit the truth in his remark on this point. 

 Of the plates we can only say that if some of the figures are a 

 little stiff and awkward, it must be ascribed to the fact that the 

 artist had already exhausted all the graceful attitudes, and was 



* A Monograph of the Alcedinidce or Kingfishers, hy R. B. Shaepe, 

 F.L.S., Libr.Z.S., &c. Parts vii.-ix. London: 1870. 



