353 Mr. P. L. Sclater on the 



specimens, amongst them a pair o£ dissipated- looking Ai'deola 

 grayi from Madras. In the Chinese quarter the most 

 prominent object is the large boat, with a dozen or so of 

 Chinese Cormorants (apparently Phalacrocorax carbo) ready 

 for fishing ; but as regards the rest of the exhibit, we are 

 irresistibly reminded of the well-known opinion of Bret Harte 

 when we see a Magpie and some other Passeres, a Coot, an 

 Avocet, some Ducks, a Swan, and a conventional show-case 

 of Larus ridibundus and its young put forth as representa- 

 tives of the fish-eaters of the Celestial Empire. 



In the long galleries on either side of and behind the 

 Conservatory are a number of cases exhibited by various 

 bird-stufters, one of Avhom contributes a group containing, 

 amongst other things, a Dipper with a small fish in its bill ! 

 Mr. Gunn, of Norwich, has a series of cases, some of them 

 containing specimens of rare visitors which have promptly 

 been slain on arrival to make the joy of some collector of 

 '' British-killed " birds ; and there are others containing 

 more or less accurately rendered family groups, although 

 it may be allowable to demur to a Sterna minuta hovering 

 over a clutch of fow eggs. As regards the rest of the 

 British section, it may be well to imitate the filial piety 

 of the patriarchs, and, discreetly walking backwards, drop 

 the mantle of oblivion over the nakedness of the fatherland. 



XXXII. — A Review of the Species of the Family Icterida^. — 

 Part II. IcteriuEe. By P. L. Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S. 



(Plate XI.) 



[Continued from p. 163.] 

 Shorn of the Cassiques, the Icterinse, according to my views, 

 contain only one large genus. Icterus, which, however, it is 

 possible, for convenience^ sake, to divide into three sections — 

 Hyphantes, Pendulinus, and Icterus. But I quite agree with 

 the distinguished authors of the ' History of North- American 

 Birds ^■^, that it is "exceedingly difiicult to arrange these 



* Op. cit. vol. ii. p. 180. 



