718 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



namely Lanius excubitor." This is an important point to 

 British ornithologists, but those interested in the Shrike- 

 question should study the whole article. 



Dr. Hartert proposes to alter the name Lanius caudatus 

 of Cabanis (1869) to Lanius cabanisi, because Brehm in 

 1855 used the same "silly" name for L. nubicus. We do 

 not see the necessity of this change, as the "silly name" has 

 never been adopted and is now long ago forgotten. 



115. Hell in ai/r on Spite's Types. 



[Revision der Spix'scben Typen brasilianischer Vogel. Von C. E. 

 Hellmayr. Abb. k. Bayer. Alt. d. Wiss. ii. Kl. xxii. Bd. iii. pp. 563-726.] 



This is a good piece of work, which will be most accept- 

 able to all students of Neotropical Ornithology. Mr. Hell- 

 mayr has spent nearly two years in examining and com- 

 paring the types of Spix's Brazilian birds in the Munich 

 Museum, and now gives us his results with full explanations. 

 We do not say that we accede to all his proposed alterations 

 in nomenclature. Far from it — we think that no change in 

 an established name should be made when there is the least 

 doubt on the point, and that obsolete terms should not be 

 revived under any circumstances to the prejudice of well- 

 known names. 



After an introduction, which contains a short but sufficient 

 account of Spix and his travels, our author takes the plates 

 and descriptions of the two volumes of the ' Avium Species 

 Novae ' one after the other, and gives us a disquisition on 

 them; shorter or longer as the case requires, specifying 

 exactly the specimens now at Munich and their localities. 

 An alphabetical Index at the end renders it easy to find what, 

 in our author's opinion, the modern version of each of Spix's 

 names should be. 



The following names appear to be new : — Lamprops tana- 

 grinus violaceus (p. 616), Formicivora ocliropyga (p. 663), 

 Ortulis columbiana (p. 698), and O. spixi (p. 695). Jabiru (!) 

 (p. 711) is a new generic name for Mycteria americana, but 

 we prefer the old one and shall stick to it ! 



