128 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



drawn, and in most cases well printed in colours. They 

 will serve at any rate to distinguish all but the most closely- 

 allied species, and looking at the very moderate price charged 

 for it the work will, no doubt, meet with a considerable 

 success among those who require a cheap and well-written 

 book on a popular subject. 



10. Newton and Gadow's Dictionary of Birds. 



[A Dictionary of Birds. By Alfred Newton, assisted by Hans Gadow. 

 With Contributions from R. Lydekker, C. E. Roy, and R. W. Shufeldt. 

 Part II. London : A. & C. Black, 1893.] 



We have to thank the publishers for an early copy of the 

 second part of the ' Dictionary of Birds,^ and regret that it 

 did not arrive quite in time to be acknowledged in our last 

 number. A perusal of its pages has convinced us that this 

 volume, when completed, will be one of the most useful aids 

 to the working ornithologist that have been issued for a long 

 period. Besides the well-condensed article given under 

 every head, full references are always added to the most 

 recent authorities upon the subject, so that one can at once 

 turn to the works where more detailed information is to be 

 found. As might have been expected from the Editor's 

 well-known carefulness, misprints are few, and mistakes, 

 perhaps, still fewer. But amongst the latter we venture to 

 include the rather unkind allusions to well-known fellow- 

 workers on Ornithology that are occasionally found in the 

 ' Dictionary.^ For example, Mr. Seebohm^s theory of the 

 introduction of the Blue Magpie into Spain {op. cit. p. 342) 

 cannot, we believe, be fairly maintained. But it is not 

 more ridiculous than many other explanations of the vagaries 

 of geographical distribution that habitually pass current in 

 the present day and receive general acquiescence, if not 

 approval. 



The elaborate essay on Geographical Distribution, which 

 occupies fifty pages of the present part, is an important 

 contribution to this branch of our science. The reasons 

 that have induced the author to unite the Palsearctic and 

 Nearctic into a " Holarctic '^ Region are now set out. "We 



