450 Messrs. Sclater and Finsch's Index to the 



4. Note on some of the Cranial Peculiarities of the Wood- 

 peckers. Ibis, 1872, pp. 357-360. 



Mr. Garrod describes a small median bone between the 

 palatines in Woodpeckers, and supported like a vomer on the 

 basisphenoid rostrum. This he believes to be the vomer, 

 which Prof. Huxley believed to be wanting in this group. 

 The bone is figured in a woodcut of the palate of Gecinus 

 viridis, p. 359. 



Garrod, A. H., and Darwin, F. 



Notes on an Ostrich lately living in the Zoological Society's 

 Gardens. P. Z. S. 1872, pp. 356-363. 



Contains remarks on the anatomy, and in particular de- 

 scribes and figures a new bone attached to the anterior border 

 of the pubic portion of the os innominatum. The bird ex- 

 amined died from copper -poisoning, caused by swallowing a 

 large number of copper coins. 



Giebel, Dr. C. G. 



1. Thesaurus Ornithologiae. Rejjertorium der gesammten 

 ornithologischen Literatur und Nomenclator sdmmtliche 

 Gattungen und Arten der Vbgel nebst Synonymen und 

 geographischer Verbreitung. 1 vol. in 2 Halbbanden. 

 Lexiconf. pp. 868. Leipzig : F. A. Brockhaus, 1872. 

 The well-known Professor of Halle, who has already fur- 

 nished zoological literature with many works on various 

 branches, has now entered on ornithology, and with a work 

 which all ornithologists would salute with the utmost pleasure 

 and thankfulness if it had been carried out in a somewhat 

 better way. The title promises very much; but the work 

 itself proves to be merely a compilation of a laborious 

 writer who has collected an enormous mass of names and 

 synonyms, without such understanding of the subject as the 

 author of such a pretentious work ought to have. Some of 

 the numerous and indescribable blunders and errors in the 

 bibliographical part are corrected in the reprint of pp. 193- 

 212 appended to the second half- volume. To this volume the 

 author also appends a reprint of his " defence " (Zeitschr. f. 

 ges. Naturw. 1872, pp. 130-137) against the criticisms which 

 appeared in ' Literarisches Centralblatt fiir Deutschland' von 



