Recenthj published Ornithological Works . 31 i 



that; besides the specimen in the British Museum, there are 

 examples of it at Leyden. We have little doubt that the 

 bird will eventually turn up again^ and we maintain that 

 it should be termed ignitus. Nor could we consent to 

 Mr. Graut^s proposal to call Lophura meiUoti " L. rufa," 

 Phasianus rufus of Raffles being a very doubtful synonym. 



The Peristeropodous Gallinee, as first shown by Huxley, 

 fall very naturally into two families — the Megapodes and 

 Curassows. In the treatment of the latter group the compiler 

 of the Catalogue would have done better by following the 

 lead of his predecessors more closely. The specimens of the 

 Salvin-Godman Collection on which their work was based are 

 now in the British Museum. No one could have found fault 

 if the species founded on its contents had been maintained, 

 at any rate where no additional evidence was available. To 

 come to an exactly contrary conclusion from the decisions of 

 previous authorities (as in the case of Crax erythrognatha) is 

 not, in our opinion, a laudable exercise of private judgment. 

 It would have been easy, and " better form," to follow the 

 previous lead and to have expressed some doubts as to its 

 correctness. 



On the whole, however, we are by no means dissatisfied 

 with Mr. Grant's volume, which bears many marks of care 

 and conscientious work. We tbink that the descriptions are in 

 most cases too long, and that a few more explanatory remarks 

 after the lengthy specific characters would have added much 

 to their usefulness. To ascertain the principal differences 

 between two nearly allied species one has generally to turn 

 back to the somewhat complicated key, which is often ren- 

 dered still more difficult of comprehension by the insertion of 

 female characters in the series. Female and juvenile cha- 

 racters are, we maintain, quite out of place in keys of species, 

 which should be based on adult male characters only. 



We also regret to see that the '' Scomber-scomber " fad 

 has been adopted throughout this volume, and that many 

 well-known names are consequently changed. This practice is 

 exactly contrary to the Stricklandian Code (see Rep. on Zool. 

 Nomencl. 1842, p. 10), and we know not how it can be justified. 



y2 



