Vol i907" IV ] Recent Literature. 113 



in the subject. Moot questions are discussed with commendable con- 

 servatism, and the book is thus a safe guide to the inexperienced searcher 

 for knowledge. 



The author's opportunities for the study of a wide range of bird types in 

 life, through his curatorship of birds at the New York Zoological Park, 

 have given him advantages that few can share, and the pages of ' The Bird ' 

 are enriched by many original and hitherto unpublished observations. 

 We note very few slips of any importance, and are therefore surprised to 

 find it stated (p. 297) that the male Bobolink "changes from the buffy 

 female dress to his rich black-and-white spring suit" merely by the wear- 

 ing off of the brittle feather tips. The context does not lead one to suppose 

 that the male Bobolink acquires his nuptial dress by a full spring moult, 

 which no one better than the author of this book must know occurs, but 

 which for the moment he forgot to imply. There is, as he states, a 

 speedy wearing off of the brown feather-tips after the spring moult, beneath 

 which the black is at first more or less veiled. 



His accounts of protective coloration and geographical variation, while 

 brief, give a good general statement of the facts, and, as is the case in 

 nearly every instance where broad subjects, open to speculative explana- 

 tion are touched upon, these topics are treated with commendable reserve. 

 On the whole ' The Bird ' fills a peculiar niche of its own, and must prove 

 a mine of welcome information to a wide class of readers. — J. A. A. 



Hellmayr on Spix's Types of Brazilian Birds. 1 — In the year 1817 the 

 King of Bavaria, Maximilian Joseph I, sent a scientific expedition to explore 

 the rich fauna and flora of Brazil. Dr. J. B. von Spix was the zoologist 

 and Dr. C. P. von Martius was the botanist of this expedition, one of the 

 most famous and successful of the several scientific expeditions sent out 

 by different European governments during the first half of the nineteenth 

 century for the exploration of the natural history of South America. Spix 

 and Martius reached Rio de Janeiro the 14th of July, 1817, and sailed 

 from Para on their return to Europe on the 14th of June, 1820. During 

 these three years they explored a large part of southern Brazil, and the 

 Amazon from its mouth to eastern Ecuador, including journeys up some of 

 its principal tributaries, as the Rio Negro and the Rio Madeira. The 

 ornithological results, by Spix, 2 were published in two large quarto vol- 

 umes, the first in 1824, the second in 1825, under the title 'Avium Species 

 Novae, quas in itinere per Brasiliam annis 1817-1820,' etc. In this work, 

 according to Hellmayr, about 220 species of birds were described as new 

 or given new names. Of these only about 100 remain in good standing, 

 while a few, through the loss of the types, are not clearly determinable. 



1 Revision der Spix'sehen Typen brasilianische Vogel. Von C. E. Hellmayr. 

 Abhandl. der K. B. Akademie der Wissensehaften, II Kl., XXII Bd., Ill Abt., pp. 

 563-726, Taf. 1, 2, May 20, 1906. 



2 Johan Baptist von Spix, born 9 Feb., 1781 ; died 15 May, 1826. 



