6j4 Recently [mblished Omitlioloyical Works. 



to Australia. The most important characters used for 

 distinguishing the various races are the colour of the iris, 

 the colour of the bases of the feathers^ and the size. These 

 and the effects of climate and temperature are all discussed, 

 and the general conclusion is reached that those forms 

 inhabiting plateaus and mountain-ranges are, as a rule, 

 larger than those inhabiting less elevated and warmer 

 regions. 



Sivarth on the Bewick Wren. 



[The Pacific Coast Races of the Bewick Wren. By Harry A. Swarth. 

 Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. (4) vi. 1916, pp. 53-85, pi. 2.] 



Bewick's Wren is an abundant species throughout the 

 ■warmer parts of the United States and Mexico. East of 

 the Rocky Mountains, as is so often the case, there is very 

 little subspecilic variation. In the west, however, especially 

 on the Pacific Coast, owing doubtless to the great variation 

 in humidity, a number of subspecilic forms can be distin- 

 guishedj varying from the dark short-tailed calophonus of 

 British Columbia and Washington to the pale long-tailed 

 charienlurus of southern California. 



Mr. Swarth has had over 500 examples of Bewick's Wren 

 under examination, and distinguishes five mainland and 

 three island races, whose ranges are shown in a distribution- 

 map and inter-relationships exhibited in a diagnostic table. 



The whole paper is a very good example of the thorough 

 rauthods of the modern American school, and is distinguished 

 by its clarity of tliought and expression. 



Tknrhurn's ' British Birds.' 



[British Birds, written and illustrated by H. Thorburn, F.Z.S. In four 

 volumes. Vol. iii. pp. vi+87, pis. 41-60. London (Longmans), 1916. 

 4to.] 



The third volume of Thorburn's ' British Birds ' contains 

 the account of the Herons, Ducks, Doves, Game-birds, and 

 Kails, and it is a great pleasure to turn over the beautiful 

 plates he has prepared for it. The Game-birds and Ducks 



