146 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



to learn (p. 353) to what extent Honey-eaters can be fed on 

 honey and water, and still more interesting must it have 

 been to keep watch over the breeding Waxwings, which 

 nested three times and on the second occasion hatched 

 several young. 



5. Blasius on the Great Auk. 



[Der Riesenalk. Alca impennis L. Neu bearbeitet von Geb. Hofrat 

 Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Blasius in Braunschweig. (Sonderabdruck aus 

 Naumann, Naturgeschicbte der Vogel Mitteleuropas, Band xii.)] 



As many of our readers know, there is now in process of 

 issue, and in fact nearly completed, a so-called new folio 

 edition of Naumann's celebrated ' Vogel Deutschlands/ 

 which is really a fresh work on the same subject pre- 

 pared by different authors. We have been favoured by our 

 much esteemed friend and correspondent, Dr. Wilhelm 

 Blasius, of Brunswick, with a copy of his memoir on the 

 Great Auk {Alca impennis), which appears in the twelfth 

 volume of the work in question ; this we have great pleasure 

 in introducing to the notice of British ornithologists who 

 may not be acquainted with all that is written in Germany. 

 Dr. Blasius's elaborate essay is dedicated to Prof. Newton, 

 "in grosser VerehrungundDankbarkeit," and we mayassume, 

 therefore, with tolerable certainty, that it has not been 

 prepared without the assistance of the greatest living authority 

 on the subject. The memoir appears to us, so far as we can 

 judge from a cursory examination, to contain a full resume 

 of what has been written on this much discussed question, 

 while it is illustrated with five plates shewing the bird itself, 

 its eggs, and its skeleton. 



The synonymy of the Great Auk alone occupies seven 

 pages, after which we find the description of the species, 

 its geographical range (illustrated by several charts and 

 sketches), the pursuit of it, its habits, its food, its repro- 

 duction, its enemies, and all its other attributes set forth at 

 length and in proper order. The prices of the stuffed 

 specimens, eggs, and skeletons of the famous bird which 

 have been sold since 183.2 are also fully discussed. 



