Recently published Ornithological Works, 147 



Mathcius on Australian Birds, 



[The Birds of Australia. By Gregory M. ^^atllews. Vol. ii. pts. 3 

 and 4, pp. 2.37-47G, pis. 95-120. London ( Witherby & Co.), 1912. 4to.] 



Mr. Mathews sends us two solid instalments of the above- 

 mentioned workj which take us to the end of the Prooellarii- 

 formes and into the Lariformes. Whatever opinions may be 

 formed as to the validity of the specific or subspecific forms 

 recognised, there can be no question as to the immense 

 amount of information now laid before us, and future writers, 

 in consequence, will now find it a much easier task to discuss 

 the Petrels of the World, especially after comparing the 

 author's views with those of Dr. Godman in his great Mono- 

 graph. Solander's excellent descriptions are in many cases 

 a considerable help in determining the nomenclature, while 

 Mr, Mathews's 'Austral Avian Record^ and his papers in 

 * Novitates Zoologicae,^ vols. xvii. and xviii, should also be 

 consulted. Attention may be more particularly drawn to the 

 discussion of the genera in the present book, and to the diffcr- 

 encesof the bills in the Albatrosses, of which good woodcuts are 

 given in illustration. The genera accepted are Diomedea, 

 Phoebastria, Thalassarche, Thalassogeron, and Phosbetria, while 

 D. epornophora of Lesson replaces D. regia of Buller, and Phos- 

 betria palpebrata of Forster is used for P. fuUginusa of Gmelin. 



Under the head of Lariformes we observe that Hydro- 

 chelidon is rightly retained in place of ChUdonias of 

 Rafinesque, published only in a newspaper called the 

 ' Kentucky Gazette' ; Gelochelidon is accepted for our Gull- 

 billed Tern, though the specific name anglica is changed 

 to nilotica, and the Caspian Tern stands as Hydrojjrogne 

 tschegrava. In the genus Sterna, S. sumatrana replaces 

 S. melanauchen, shown to be the adult of the same species, 

 and the Australian form is differentiated as S. s. kempi, while 

 the author^s own S. s. incerta is sunk in favour of S.s. mela- 

 norhyncha. Thalasseus is utilized for the whole of the 

 S. bergii group of forms, while S. media of Horsfield is 

 found to be preoccupied and the name T. bengalensis torresii 

 substituted. 



Slernula is used for the Least Terns, Onychoprion for the 



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