218 



Recent Ornithological Publications. 



Lophophaps leucogaster (sp. n.j. S. 

 Australia. 



Pardalotixs xanthopygius. S. Aus- 

 tralia. 



Ptilotis cassidix. (Patria ignota.) 



Sphenura broadbenti. Victoria. 



Atrichia rufescens. Richmond 



River. 

 Gerygone personata. Cape York.^ 

 Cacomantis castaneiventris. 



Queensland. 

 Actiturus bartramius. Botany Bay ! 



It is almost unnecessary for us to make any remarks. This 

 list of plates tells its own tale. Some of tliem, of course, please 

 our eye more than do others ; but there are few, if any, that fail 

 to please it somehow. 



Whatever opinion our readers may entertain of the principles 

 of Mr. Darwin's well-known theory, we believe they will all be 

 charmed with one at least of his last two volumes *. The amount 

 of information the author sets forth on Pigeons and Poultry is 

 very great, and his skill in marshalling the countless facts he 

 cites is perfectly marvellous. He seems to possess, if not the 

 philosopher's stone, yet a touchstone of wondrous virtue; and 

 the way he applies it to detect the presence of a grain or two of 

 gold in a heap of apparent rubbish must be witnessed to be appre- 

 ciated. He extracts facts of the highest scientific importance 

 from materials commonly neglected by naturalists, in a manner 

 most pleasing to contemplate. To the readers of this Journal the 

 minute descriptions of the various races and breeds of Columba 

 livia and G alius hankiva cannot fail to be deeply interesting ; 

 and the anatomical details he furnishes with respect to the va- 

 rieties of these species are, so far as we know, presented to the 

 public for the first time. As regards some of the other domesti- 

 cated birds, Mr. Darwin, we think, is not so successful ; and his 

 statement (vol. i. p. 237) that the wild form of the Chinese 

 Goose [Anser cygnoides) is " still unknown or extinct " is cer- 

 tainly incorrect. The wild stock of this bird was described and 

 figured by Pallas (Zoogr. Ross. -As. ii. pp. 218-220, pi. Ixiv.), 

 Temminck, and Schlegel (Faun. Jap. Aves, pp. 125, 126, tab. 

 Ixxxi.), and again in great detail by Dr. L. von Schrenck (Reisen 

 u. s. w. im Amur-Lande, i. pp. 457-462, taf. xv.), and, we should 



* The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication. 

 Oharles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S., &c. London : 1868. 2 vols. 8vo. 



By 



