282 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



will not so much advance ornithological science as his humbler 

 efforts on the birds of the Bahamas and the inhabitants of 

 the Magdalen Islands. Let us suggest to Mr. Cory that a 

 companion volume to the former, devoted to the birds of St. 

 Domingo, is one much wanted by naturalists. 



38. D'Albertis's ' New Guinea.' 



[New Guinea : what I did and what I saw. By L. M. D'Albertis. 



2 vols. 8vo. London : Sampson Low. 1880.] 



Mr. D^Albertis's narrative of his first voyage to New 

 Guinea (1872-72), as of his three expeditions up the ^Fly 

 River in 1875 and the two following years, will be read with 

 the greatest interest by every naturalist. Perhaps the most 

 attractive part is the account of his visit to Hatam and the 

 Arfak Mountains in September 1872, where he succeeded in 

 attaining an elevation of about 5500 feet. Notes on the birds 

 observed and obtained are interspersed throughout the narra- 

 tive, which is in the form of a journal; but the scientific 

 names are not ahvays correctly spelt. A short general ac- 

 count of the collections of birds made during the several 

 expeditions, with references to the memoirs in which they 

 have been described, would, perhaps, have been more useful 

 than the lists of names printed in the appendix. Coloured 

 figures are given of Lophorina atra, Parotia sexpennis, and 

 Drepanornis albertisi, copied, the two former from Gould^s 

 ' Birds of New Guinea,^ the last from the figure in the P. Z. S. 

 (1873, pi. xlvii.). The occurrence of Dasyptilus pesgueti 

 on the Fly River (ii. p. 103) is noteworthy, as also the results 

 of the examination of the stomachs of Seleucides alba (ibid, 

 p. 278). The following passage (i. p. 67), so far as we know, 

 gives us a new fact in the history of Pomatorhinus isidorii : — 



" I have remarked, without being able to explain the fact, 

 that the Pomatorhinus is in the habit of following Birds of 

 Paradise. At Ramoi I saw it following the Cicinnurus and 

 the Seleucides ; today it was following the Papuan or Minor 

 Bird of Paradise. Perhaps it is attracted by the bright 

 colours of the latter. I should think this was the case, if I 

 had only seen it following the males ; but as I have often seen 



