Recent Ornitholuyical Puhlicat'wns. 1 09 



The main portion of the volume which succeeds furnishes us 

 with a special account of the several birds of the Central-Poly- 

 nesian avifauna. Each of them is succinctly described in Latin 

 and German ; and very full particulars of its synonymy, range, 

 and other attributes are given. All this information has evi- 

 dently been collected and put together in the most careful and 

 conscientious manner; and notes upon the conjectured occur- 

 rence of other species, and many incidental remarks, worthy of 

 the reader's attention, are likewise added. 



Fourteen coloured plates illustrate some of the most interesting 

 novelties in eggs and birds described in the work. They form 

 the portion of it on which we can dwell with the least satisfac- 

 tion. It is true that the drawing is generally very fair; but 

 the plates are harshly printed, and the colouring (we fear we 

 must use the only word which will fitly describe it) is daubed. 

 The figures of eggs are especially failures in this respect, and 

 are entirely wanting in character, which is the more to be re- 

 gretted as many of them belong to genera of which the eggs 

 were hitherto quite unknown. This defect, however, is really 

 the only fault we can find with the volume — though we may 

 regret that it is not accompanied by a map of those groups of 

 islands to which it particularly relates. Were this little addi- 

 tion made, it would be one of the most perfect ornithological 

 works with which we are acquainted. 



Dr. Julius IIofTmann has published a very good monograph 

 on the Woodcock * [Scolopax rusticula) which shows that he 

 has devoted himself to the subject with equal success as a na- 

 turalist and a sportsman. He first gives a long and detaded 

 description of the bird, particularly directing attention to a 

 curious peculiarity of its bill, the upper mandible of which is 

 capable of voluntary upward movement — a property that seems 

 to have hitherto almost entirely escaped notice, but now suffi- 

 ciently well established, and illustrated by a woodcut. He then 

 treats of the perplexing variations which, as all sportsmen know, 

 exist in the size, weight, and colour of individual examples, and 



* Die Waldschnepfe. Eiu mono^n'aphischer Beitrag ziir .Jagdzoologie, 

 von Dr. Ji'Lius Hoffmann, Stuttfrart: 1807. 8vo, pp. 151. 



