450 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



and a new arrangement of the species of Cotinga based on 

 these characters, which are illustrated by figures, is sug- 

 gested. 



72. Goodchild on Crested Birds of Prey. 



[Notes on Crested Birds of Prey. By J. G. Goodchild, F.Z.S. Proc. 

 R. Phys. Soc. Edinb. x. p. 202.] 



Assimilative or protective coloration and even sexual 

 selection, Mr. Goodchild says, appear hardly to have affected 

 the Birds of Prey at all. Their colours are mostly sober 

 combinations of white, with various shades of brown, grey, 

 and buff, and almost their only decorative feature is the 

 elongation of one or other of the various patches of head- 

 feathers into a so-called crest. After discussing the various 

 styles of crest, the author insists on regarding the " posses- 

 sion of a crest as a character older than the species," and 

 upon studying the distribution of crested Accipitres, dis- 

 covers that with hardly an exception they are absent in the 

 Nearclic, Palsearctic and Australian Regions. For a hypo- 

 thetical explanation of where this peculiar feature may have 

 originated we must refer our readers to the author's own 

 words. 



73. Goodchild on the Cubital Coverts of Birds. 



[The Cubital Coverts of the Euornithse in Relation to Taxonomy. By 

 J. G. Goodchild, F.Z.S. Proc. R. Phys. Soc. Edinb. x. p. 317.] 



After some excellent prefatory remarks on modern princi- 

 ples of zoological classification, Mr. Goodchild puts forward 

 his most recent views on the disposition of the cubital 

 coverts in the Euornithes (for we cannot follow him in his 

 irregular plural of ornis), as arrived at since the publication 

 of his paper on the same subject in 1886 (P. Z. S. 1886, 

 p. 184). Mr. Goodchild adopts, with some small modifica- 

 tions, "VVray's nomenclature for the feathers of the bird's- 

 wing published in 1887 (P. Z. S. 1887, p. 343). His general 

 conclusion is that " a particular style of overlap or imbrica- 

 tion of the several feathers in each row of the external 



