Recentli/ published Ornithological Works. 571 



Pigeon of which the author lias been unable to describe the 

 breeding. 



7Q. Menegaux on the Birds of Ecuador. 



[Mission du Service geograpliique de IMrm^e pour la mesure d'un Arc 

 de Meridien Equatorial en Am^rique du Sud, sous la Coutrole scientifique 

 de rAcad(5mie dcs Sciences de France 1899-1900. Etude d«s oiseaui de 

 I'Eqnateurrapporti^s par le Dr. Rivet. Par A. Menegaux. 4to. 128 pp.] 



The French scientific mission, sent out to Quito in 1899 

 to examine the arc o£ the meridian uuder the Equator 

 measured in the seventeenth century, was accompanied by 

 Dr. Rivet as medical officer. Dr. Eivet, during the five 

 j^ears that he stayed in Ecuador^ m;ide a collection of 

 birds of which M. Menegaux gives us an account in the 

 present memoir. The collection consists of 885 specimens, 

 belonging to 290 species. 



The philosophers of the 17th century did not pay much 

 attention to Birds, and nothing is recorded by our author 

 concerning the Avifauna of Ecuador until Sclater's publica- 

 tion in 1854 of an essay on the Birds of the province of 

 Quixos. This was quickly followed by a series of papers 

 on the birds of Ecuador collected by Louis Eraser, under 

 Sclater's instructions and at his expense ; Buckley, Stubel 

 and Wolf, Jelski, Stolzmann, Rosenberg, and Goodfellow 

 followed Eraser's steps, and were so successful that we find 

 only one species [Fhilijdor columbianus) described as new to 

 science in the present memoir. 



Theie are no collectors' notes given by INI. Menegaux, nor 

 are the exact localities of the specimens brought home always 

 stated. But the memoir will be useful to those who are 

 studying the Bird-life of the adjoining republics, and would 

 have been still more useful if it had been accompauind by 

 a map. 



Eour coloured plates represent Ti/iamus Uttifrons, Odunto- 

 plioriis mclanonotus, GraUaria gigantea, u\\i\ Phihjdor columbi- 

 anus riveti; and a useful list of previous writings on the 

 Birds of Ecuador is given. 



