Recent Ornithological Publications. 511 



in the next few Uvraisons, whenever the events that are now so 

 unhappily occurring in Fi-ance admit of their publication. 



But the foregoing has not been the only recent work of M. 

 A. Milne-Edwards. He has contributed an article on " Oiseaux 

 Fossiles'^ to the second edition of the 'Dictionnaire Universel 

 d'Histoire Naturelle^ (vol. ix. pp. 671-719), which gives, as 

 might be expected from the author, by far the most complete 

 general account of Fossil Ornithology we have ever seen, from 

 the Sauropsids (whether they were truly birds or no) which left 

 their footprints on the sands of time in triassic days, and the 

 real "early bird," Archceo'pteryx, to the latest (if they are the 

 latest) victims of extinction, the Great Auk and the Phillip- 

 Island Nestor. The perusal of these remarks naturally raises the 

 question. Whose turn is it next ? 



3. Belgian. 

 In spite of the popular belief to the contrary, the most dis- 

 agreeable duty of an editor is the having to notice books in 

 praise of which, however willing to do so, he can say nothing — 

 and the more so when the author has himself paid the debt of 

 nature. Such is unfortunately the case at the present moment. 

 The two works of M. Dubois* which have been publishing during 

 the last ten years, or thereabouts, certainly require notice ; but we 

 exceedingly regret to say that we have not a good word for them. 

 If these publications left things exactly where they where, it 

 might perhaps not have been necessary to mention them ; but 

 this is exactly what they do not do. The author must needs 

 bestow on perfectly well-known species new names. Why should 

 the poor little bird so unobjectionably described more than 

 eighty years ago as Motacilla superciliosa be encumbered with a 

 new appellation in addition to the half-dozen or so it already 

 bore? Yet here it figures as " Phylloscopus pallasii, Dubois" 

 — the English of which, our readers will be delighted to learn, 



* Planches coloriees des Oiseaux ile la Belgique et de leurs CEufs. Par 

 Ch. F. Dubois. Bruxelles. Royal 8vo. 



Planches coloriees des Oiseaux de I'Europe et de leurs CEufs, especes 

 non observees en Belgique. Par Ch. F. Dubois. Bruxelles. Royal 8vo. 



