O Recent Literature. | an 



Part II is worthy of the high praise we have already bestowed upon Part 

 I, and assures us that the 'Dictionary' will prove to be one of the most 

 useful hand-books of general ornithology ever published. It would be easy 

 to pick flaws here and there, but its general excellence would render this 

 an ungracious task. We may, however, call attention to one singular 

 oversight in respect to the genus Otocoris (or Otocorys, as our author 

 prefers to write it), where in a foot-note to page 511 it is stated, ; 'By 

 American writers it is usually called Eremophila, but that name is pre- 

 occupied in natural history." While this was formerly the case, the name 

 Otocoris for the Horned Larks has been in almost universal use among 

 American writers for a full decade, the change having been made as early 

 as 1S82, and became generally adopted as early as 1884. Such occasional 

 slips are doubtless due to the fact that portions of the work have been 

 bodily transferred from the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica' without subjection 

 to quite the rigid scrutiny the lapse of time has rendered necessary. 



While it is not customary to look for an index to a dictionary, in the 

 present case an index would prove an indispensable adjunct, since very few 

 of the almost numberless technical names of genera and species, and even 

 of the higher groups, appear as titles of articles, but must be sought in 

 the body of the text. It is hence not to be supposed that such an impor- 

 tant matter will be overlooked by either the author or the publishers. 

 — J. A. A. 



Salvadori's Catalogue of the Pigeons. — The introduction to the 'Cata- 

 logue of the Columbae' 1 gives a useful though brief sketch of the litera- 

 ture of the subject, from which it appears that the number of species 

 enumerated by G. R. Gray in 1871 was 378, while Schlegel in 1873 recog- 

 nized only 249. The number recognized in the present 'Catalogue' is 

 45S, while notice is taken of 27 others regarded by the author as of a 

 more doubtful character. The British Museum Collection, we are 

 informed, contains, after the elimination of duplicates, 7359 specimens, 

 belonging to 415 species. Of these species "112 are represented by typi- 

 cal specimens, besides 47 which are types of species that have been identi- 

 fied with others previously described." Only "42 species are still desid- 

 erata in the Collection"! Eleven are here described for the first time. 

 In the acknowledgments of assistance it is stated that "the whole of 

 the American species" were worked out with the help of Mr. Salvin. 



The order Columbae is divided into two suborders, 1, Columbae, 2, Didi ; 

 the latter consisting of the two extinct genera Pezophaps and Did/is, 

 known thus far only from the islands of Mauritius, Reunion, and Rod- 



1 Catalogue | of the | Columbae, or Pigeons, | in the | Collection | of the | British 

 Museum. | By | T. Salvadori. | London : | Printed by order of the Trustees. | Sold 

 by I Longmans & Co., 39 Paternoster Row | ....[= 4 lines, names of booksellers] 

 I 1893.— 8vo, pp. i-xvii, 1-676, pll. i-xv. = Catalogue of the Birds in the British 

 Museum, Vol. XXI. 



