Recently published Ornithological Works. 377 



the names of such Irish species as are not represented in the 

 Museum are added in a different type, so that the result is a 

 complete list of Irish birds. Short notes on the distribution 

 of each species are added. 



70. Nehrling's North- American Birds. 



[North- American Birds. By H. Nehrling, M.A.O.U. To be com- 

 pleted in Twelve Parts, with thirty-six coloured Plates, by Professor 

 Robert Ridgway, of the United States National Museum and Smith- 

 sonian Institution, Professor A. Goering, Leipzig, and Gustav Muetzel, 

 Berlin. Parts 1, 2. 4to. London : 1890.] 



These are the first two numbers of what promises to be an 

 important work to American Ornithologists, although, if it is 

 intended to embrace all North-American Birds, we do not 

 quite see how it is to be completed in "twelve parts." 

 There is at present no popularly written book on the birds of 

 the U.S. brought up to modern date in existence, and Mr. 

 Nehrling's work would seem, certainly as regards its text, to be 

 likely to supply this desideratum. But notwithstanding the 

 undoubted talents of the artists combined to draw the illus- 

 trations, we cannot say that the plates are quite satisfactory. 

 The very fully coloured backgrounds mar the effect, and in 

 spite of the enormous advances made of late years in colour- 

 printing, it has not yet, in our opinion, arrived at perfect 

 success as regards birds, although it has some undoubted 

 advantages. 



71. Ridgway on Birds from St. Lucia, the Abrolhos Islands, 

 and the Straits of Magellan. 



[Scientific Results of Explorations by the U.S. Fish-Commission 

 Steamer ' Albatross.'— II. Birds collected on the Island of Santa Lucia, 

 West Indies, Abrolhos Islands, Brazil, and at the Straits of Magellan, in 

 1887-88. By Robert Ridgway. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xii. p. 129.] 



Mr. Ridgway writes of the birds obtained by the Natural- 

 ists of the U.S. Fish-Commission's Steamer ' Albatross ' 

 at these three localities. At the first two places little was 

 obtained but what is already well known. At various ports 

 in the Straits of Magellan examples of 66 species of birds 

 were procured. Amongst these is a Geositta, from Elizabeth 



