1 2 1 Recent LiU mture. [j 



Villi 



an. 



Mathews' ' Birds of Australia.' ' Parts 3 and -I of the second volume 

 of Mr. Mathews' .meat work are before us testifying to the energy with 

 which the publication is being carried on. En style these parts are simi- 

 lar to those that have preceded them and they are fully up to the high stan- 

 dard that characterized the Brsl volume. The only point wherein Mr. 

 Mathews' work seems open io criticism is in his failure to designate type 

 specimens for the extralimital races that he is constantly describing as new, 

 and in the brevity of some of these descriptions. The latter practice the 

 writer has jusl had occasion to criticise in another connection while in 

 the matter of types he has recently been put to so much trouble in at- 

 tempting to ascertain the type specimens of Gould's species of Australian 

 birds, thai he naturally regrets that the modern authority on Australasian 

 ornithology should follow, in the case of these forms, the bail example set 

 by his predecessor. Such a practice will cause some one much trouble 

 and research in the future. 



The two parts under consideration comprise 240 page-sand 26 plates 

 practically completing Volume II. They cover the remainder of the Pro- 

 cellariiformes and most of the Lariformes. 



The following forms are described as new, most of them from localities 

 outside Australia. In part 3: Pelecanoides urinatrix coppingeri, Straits of 

 Magellan; Pxtffinaria garnotii lessoni, Toast of Chili; /'.</. mageUani, Straits 

 of Magellan; Diomedea exuUms rolhschildi, Australian Seas; Thalassarche 

 melanophris impavida, Tasmania; '/'. m. belcheri, ECerguelen; T. m. rich' 

 tnondi, Wesl coast of South America; Tholassogeron chrysostoma harterti, 

 ECerguelen; Phaibetria pedpebrata huttoni, New Zealand Seas; /'. fusca 

 campbeUi, Australian Seas; Hydrochelidon leucopareia leggei, Ceylon; 

 //. /. dekdandii, South Africa; //. /. swinhon, China; Gelochelidon nilotica 

 addenda, China; (,'. n. grdnvoldi, South America; Thalassens bergii bakeri 

 Mekran (.'oast; '/'. />. edwardsi, Ceylon; '/'. bengalensis arabicus, Red Sea. 

 In part I; Sterna dougaUii bangsi, Foochow, China: S. d arideensis, Sey- 

 chelles; Sturnula nereis exsul, New Caledonia; Melanosterna anosthetus 

 recognita, Bahamas; Anous stolidus gilberH, S. W. Australia; Megalopterus 

 minutus americanus Caribbean Sea, British Honduras, .1/. m. atlanticua, 

 Ascension lsl.; Procel&tema cerulea nebouxi, EUice and Phoenix groups ami 

 Samoa; /'. c. imitatrix, St. Ambrose group; Gygis alba roi/ano, Kertnadec 

 Islands; Q. a. monte, Seychelles; Bruckigavia novae-hoUandia forsteri, 

 New Caledonia. Leucanous is proposed as a new genus with Gygis micro- 



rhyncha as type, and the following subgenera are noted, X < albatras. type 



Tholassogeron chlororhynchos] Diomedella, type Th. cauhts; and Gygisterna, 

 type Sterna sumatrana kempi. 



Several of Mr. Mathews' proposed changes in nomenclature affect the 

 \ tv 1'. Check-List. Thalassosgeron culminatus appears as Th. chryso~ 

 stoma culminata, Phabetria palpebrata is apparently his /' p. huttoni, Gelo- 



i The Birds of Australia, Bj Gregorj M.Mathews. With tiand-oolored Plates, 

 Roy. tie. Wltherbj and Co., London. 



