1G4 Recently pufitished Ornithological Works. 



Leaving Durban on ]\Iay 15, he got hack to Antwerp 

 ahout a month later. The two plates are from photographs : 

 one of the interior of the Cango caves, tlie other of the 

 breeding-place of the Malagash {Sula capensis), probal)ly 

 on Bird Island in Algoa Bay. 



Chalmers Mitchell on the Anatomy of the Coulan, or Limpkin. 



[Anatomical Notes on the Gruiform Birds Aramtis giganteus Bonap. 

 and RJiinochettts Tcagu. By P. Chalmers Mitchell. Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 1915, pp. 413-423.] 



^rhe opportunity of the death of the only example of this 

 species which had ever reached the Zoological Gardens 

 enabled Dr. Mitchell to make a dissection of this rare bird, 

 which is a northern representative of Aramus scolopaceus of 

 South America. 



The anatomy of the South American species had already 

 been studied by Garrod and by Dr. Mitchell himself, and, as 

 was to be expected, it was found that the northern form 

 i-esembled the southern one very closely so far as anatomical 

 characters were concerned. Dr. Mitchell wisely warns us 

 as follows : — '' I do not suggest, however, that the two 

 species should be merged. The more experience I gain of 

 avian anatomy, the more I am convinced that systematists 

 are well advised when they rely, at least with regard to the 

 discrimination of species and genera, more on those super- 

 ficial characters that they can observe in the series of 

 museum collections, than on the uncertain indications 

 afforded by the presence or absence of this or that muscle.^' 



A full discussion of the myology is given, and the final 

 conclusion is stated that Aramus is naturally and properly 

 placed among the Gruiform birds. 



Chapin on new African Birds. 



[Descriptions of three new Birds from the Belgian Congo. Br Jaraes 

 P. Chapin. Bull. Amer. Mus. N. II. New York, xxxiv. 1915, pp. 509- 

 513.] 



During the last six years the American Museum has had 

 an exploring and collecting expedition in the Belgian Congo, 



