Recently published Ornithological Works. 285 



49. Parker on the Morphology vf Ducks and Auks. 



[Eoyal Irish Academy, Cunniugliam Memoirs. — No. VI. On the 

 Morphology of the Duels: and the Auk Tribes. By W. Kitchen Parker, 

 F.R.S. With nine Plates. Dublin: 1890.] 



This elaborate memoir on the osteology of the Anatidse 

 and Alcidse was in course of being printed, when the sudden 

 death of the author took place (on July 3rd, 1890) . We do 

 not quite understand why the two families were studied 

 together, for, as is confessed in the prefatory remarks, they are 

 "very distantly related.^' The Alcidse, as Parker states, "lie in 

 the centre, so to speak, of a considerable number of families 

 of water-birds, and are manifestly related to the Grebes 

 and Loons, birds that seem to be the modified descendants of 

 Hesperornis." At the same time they are " quite as nearly 

 akin^^ on the other side to the Penguins. As regards the 

 Anatidae, Parker does not commit himself nearly so definitely. 

 But, as he has hinted in previous papers, the Ducks " evidently 

 come from a stock closely related to that from which the 

 Fowl-tribe sprung/^ 



50. Pleske on the Birds of Prjevalsky's Journeys in Central 

 A^ia. 



[Wissenschaftliche Resultate der von N. M. Przewalski nach Ceutral- 

 Asien unternommenen Reisen. Auf Kosten einer von seiner kaiserlichen 

 Hoheit dem Grossfiii'sten thronfolger Nikolai Alexaudrowitsch gespen- 

 deten summe herausgegeben von der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissen- 

 schafteu. Zoologischer Theil. Band II., Vogel. Bearbeitet von Th. Pleske. 

 Lief. 2. Folio. St. Petersburg: 1890.] 



We have now before us the secoijd part of this important 

 work, the object and inception of which have been already 

 spoken of (see Ibis, 1890, p. 256) . Part II. is chiefly devoted 

 to the Sylvian, Timeliine, and Accentorine Passeres. A new 

 genus, Lophobasileus, is proposed for the Leptopmcile elegans 

 of Prjevalsky. 



The following species are figured in this part : — 

 Plate II. Phylloscopus tristis, P. tristis var. sindiana, Ke- 

 guloides superciliosus var. mnndellii. 



SEH. VI. —VOL. HI, X 



