114 Recent Ornithological Publications. 



demands our attention here. Such a work is one lately pub- 

 lished by Herr Westerlund*; and the passage we have cited is 

 a translation of part of the opening sentence of the preface. 

 Had the author been aware of the existence of M. Des Murs's 

 ' Oologie Ornithologique/ which several years ago was fully 

 reviewed in 'The Ibis' (1860, pp. 325-335), he would of 

 course have qualified his assertion still more; for the scope 

 of the present work seems to be much the same as that of the 

 French Oologist, though this last treats the subject generally, 

 while the book under notice is restricted, as its title shows, to 

 the birds of Sweden and Norway. M. Des Murs separated 

 eggs into six categories, according to their form ; but Herr 

 Westerlund is content to establish four, namely, (1) Ovate 

 {ovata), (2) Oval [ovala), (3) Pear-shaped {pdronformiga) and 

 (4) Spindle-shaped {spolformigt) . We must confess we do not 

 see the great advantage to be derived from pursuing this 

 method, though we acknowledge that too much importance is 

 often attached by oologists to colour as a character. The work 

 is certainly carefully and conscientiously written — the author 

 says he has been nine years about it ; but there are a few 

 statements in it which we cannot accept as facts, and he is not 

 always correct in the derivations he gives for the scientific 

 names of birds, as witness pomarinus and Phalarvpus. 



8. American. 



The 'Annals* of the New York Lyceum contain two more 

 papers by Mr. G. N. Lawrence, in the first of which nineteen 

 American birds are described as new, namely : — Euphonia purpu- 

 rea, from an unknown locality, said to be allied to E. vio/acea ; 

 Buarremon flavovirens, from Ecuador, Pitylus humeralis, from 

 New Granada; Pliihjdor virgatus, from Costa Rica, making the 

 third species of the genus now observed north of the Isthmus 

 of Panama; Thamnophilus tenuifasciatus, from the Rio Napo, 

 and T. nigrescens, from Venezuela, both belonging to the same 



* Skandinavisk Oologi. lltbredning', Bo ocli JEgg af Syeriges ocli 

 Norges foglar, jemte Omitliologisk Exkm-sions -Fauna af Gael Agaedh 

 Westerlund. Stockhohu : 1867. (London, \yilliams and Norgate.) 

 8vo, pp. 2-50. 



