456 Recently published Ornithological Woi'ks. 



not good subjects for the improved modern art of chromo- 

 lithogTaj)liy. At the same time^ on examining Lord Lilford's 

 plates^ it becomes at once evident that some subjects are 

 much better adapted for treatment in this way than others. 



82. Lydekker on Fossil Birds in the Dublin Museum. 



[Catalogue of Fossil Mammals, Birds, Eeptiles, aud Amphibians in the 

 Science and Art Museum. By R. Lydekker, B.A. Dublin : 1891.] 



Mr. Lydekker has catalogued the fossil remains belonging 

 to the first four classes of Vertebrates in the Science and 

 Art Museum at Dublin, and pronounces the collection to be 

 one of great value in certain particulars. The specimens 

 referable to the Class Aves are not numerous, but amongst 

 them are some of considerable interest to British ornitho- 

 logists. A right humerus from the Ballynamintra Cave in 

 Waterford is assigned to Tetrao tetrix, and is '' very impor- 

 tant as proving the former existence of that species in 

 Ireland, of which there has been no (prior) evidence.''^ Simi- 

 larly, bones from the same cave and from Shandon Cave in 

 the same county testify to the former presence of the Ptar- 

 migan [Lagopus mutus) in Ireland. 



83. Lydekker' s Catalogue of Fossil Birds. 



[Catalogue of the Fossil Birds in the British Museum (Natural 

 History), Cromwell Eoad, S.W. Ej Richard Lydekker, B.A. London : 

 1891.] 



The study of fossil birds has been comparatively neglected 

 by ornithologists, although it is obvious that, as iu the case 

 of other Vertebrates, we cannot hope to understand the Class 

 Aves properly without a knowledge of its extinct forms. 

 My. Lydekker's Catalogue gives us an excellent summary 

 of the present state of our acquaintance with fossil birds, as 

 he introduces into his series ''all extinct birds (with the 

 exception of those belonging to the Passeres and Picaria) 

 from the Tertiaries of Europe, which have received distinct 

 specific names, and have been described or figured with 

 sufficient exactness to entitle them to rank as species.'-' 



