Recently published Ornithological Works. ]59 



21. Ogi/vie- Grant and Forbes on the Birds of Socotra and 

 Abd-el-Kuri. 



[The Natural History of Sokotra and Abd-el-Kuri. A Monograph of 

 the Islands. ' Edited by Henry 0. Forbes, LL.D. Liverpool, 1903. 

 Aves by W. R. Ogilvie-Grant and Henry O. Forbes.] 



This volume contains the results of the expedition to 

 Socotra and Abd-el-Kuri undertaken in the winter of 

 1898-99 by Mr. Ogilvie-Grant, representing the British 

 Museum, and Dr. Forbes, representing the Liverpool Museum, 

 and the section "Aves" has been written by these two 

 gentlemen. 



The number of birds collected by the expedition was 437: 

 396 on Socotra and 41 on the smaller island of Abd-el-Kuri, 

 which lies between Socotra and Cape Guardaf'ui. The 

 species represented in the collection are 50 : 40 from Socotra 

 and 10 from Abd-el-Kuri. Previous authorities had recorded 

 20 more species from Socotra, examples of which were not 

 met with on the present occasion. On the other hand, 

 Messrs. Ogilvie-Grant and Forbes have added 9 species to the 

 Socotran list,5of which (namely, Fringillaria insular is, F. so co- 

 trana, Caprimulgus jonesi, Scops sumatranus, and Phalacro- 

 corax nigrigularis) have been described as new to science. 

 They also discovered 3 new species on Abd-el-Kuri, namely, 

 Amydrus creaghi, Passer hemileucus, and Motacilla forwoodi. 



Altogether 67 species are catalogued in the present work 

 as found in Socotra by the authors or by previous authorities, 

 and 22 from Abd-el-Kuri ; while good field-notes are given upon 

 such of them as were observed. Five coloured plates contain 

 figures of Fringillaria socotrana, F. insularis, Caprimulgus 

 jonesi, Scops socotranus, Phalacrocorax nigrigularis, Passer 

 hemileucus, and Motacilla forwoodi. 



The avifauna of these islands is, as might have been 

 expected, purely Ethiopian, with a few representative species 

 more or less differentiated. The strong-billed Sparrow 

 Rhynchostruthus socutrensis is perhaps the most prominent 

 feature in the Socotran Ornis ; but a closely allied, though 

 smaller form {R. louisa), occurs in Somaliland. 



