374 Recently published Ornithological IVorks. 



64. Hume and Oates's ' Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds.' 



[The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds. By Allan 0. Hume, C.B. 

 Second edition, edited by Eugene William Oates. Vol. I. With four 

 portraits. Pp. 397. 8vo. London : 1889. R. H. Porter.] 



As a companion work to his ' Birds of British India/ the 

 first volume of which was noticed in our last number (above, 

 p. 362) , Mr. Oates has undertaken the preparation of a new 

 edition of Mr. Hume's f Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds/ 

 of which the parallel volume, containing the accounts of the 

 nests and eggs of the species described in the first volume of 

 the former work, is now before us. Every one interested in 

 Indian Ornithology is well acquainted with Mr. Hume's 

 'Nests and Eggs/ and although it would have been much 

 better, in our opinion, to have incorporated all the informa- 

 tion on this subject into the pages of the ' Birds of India/ 

 and thus to have only one work to refer to instead of two, 

 this course being impracticable on account of the exigencies 

 of space, we must all feel greatly indebted to Mr. Hume for 

 republishing his most useful work, and to Mr. Oates for 

 editing it. For many years after the publication of his 

 original work, Mr. Hume went on accumulating materials 

 for a second edition of his ' Nests and Eggs/ These mate- 

 rials have now been placed unreservedly in Mr. Oates's hands 

 and have been employed in the present work, which in 

 arrangement and nomenclature follows exactly the system 

 employed in the ' Birds of India.' The volume is appro- 

 priately illustrated by portraits of four leading Indian Orni- 

 thologists, Hodgson, Jerdon, Tickell, and Hume. 



65. Lever kiihn on Variations in the Coloration of Birds. 



[Ueber Farbenvarietaten bei Vogeln. Von Paul Leverhiihn. — III. 

 J. f. O. 1889, p. 245.] 



Herr Leverkuhn continues his papers on variations in the 

 plumage of birds (cf. supra, p. 116), and now gives us an 

 account of those observed in the Museums of Metz, Stras- 

 burg, and Colmar. We regret to hear that the birds in the 

 first of these Collections are not well cared for, comprising 

 as they do many specimens referred to in Malherbe's great 



