Recently published Ornithological Works. 731 



and hope that the new Director will not fail to continue 

 the series of volumes on the Fauna of South Africa which 

 his predecessor has so well commenced. 



132. Riley on the Birds of the Bahamas. 



[Birds of the Bahama Islands. By Joseph H. Riley (Geographical 

 Society of Baltimore). Baltimore, 1905.] 



The author, who is one of the staff of the U.S. National 

 Museum, was in charge of the division of "Land- zoology" 

 in the expedition sent out under Dr. G. B. Shattuck to the 

 Bahama Islands, in 1903, by the Geographical Society of 

 Baltimore, and has accepted the task of discussing the birds of 

 the Bahamas in the volume of " Results." His paper, as he 

 tells us, is rather written as a review of our present know- 

 ledge of the Bahamau Ornis than with the hope of adding 

 new material where so much has already been done. 



Mr. Riley commences with an account of previous publi- 

 cations on the birds of the Bahamas from the days of Catesby 

 (1731-1748) to the present time — Bryant, Cory, and May- 

 nard are well-known authorities on the subject. Mr. Ridg- 

 way has published a list of Bahaman Birds in the ' Auk ' 

 (1891), besides treating them in his ' Birds of North and 

 Middle America.' Our member Mr. Bonhote has contributed 

 some excellent remarks on them to this Journal (1899 and 

 1902), and Mr. Chapman's experiences with the Flamingos 

 and other species in the Bahamas are known to all of us. But 

 Mr. Riley tells us that some of the islands are still imperfectly 

 explored, and that our knowledge of the Bahaman Avifauna is 

 " far from complete." Of the 204 species and subspecies that 

 have as yet been recorded, only 100 are " summer residents," 

 the rest being accidental visitors or migrants. Taking the 

 44 " endemic " species (i. e. those not found elsewhere) one 

 after the other, Mr. Riley endeavours to trace their nearest 

 relatives. Leaving out the more or less doubtful cases, he 

 shews that fourteen forms are apparently derivatives from 

 North America and seventeen from the Greater Antilles, so 



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