504 Recently published Ornithological Works. 
merit, which will rank among the finest museum-buildings 
in the world.’ Among the acquisitions the collections 
received from Dr. Abbott and Mr. Mearns are again 
specially alluded to. 
80. Robinson on the Birds of the Aroa Islands. 
[A Visit to the Aroa Islands, with a List of the Birds found there. By 
Herbert C. Robinson, M.B.O.U., C.M.Z.S. Journ. Fed. Malay States 
Museums, vol. ii. no. 1 (1906). ] 
Pulau Jemor, one of the Aroa Islands, a group situated 
in the Straits of Malacca twenty-five miles east of Sumatra, 
was visited by Mr. Robinson in August and again in 
November, in which month it is frequented by many birds 
on migration. His list contains the names of 40 species, 
mostly well-known Malaccan forms. Two species of Pitta 
(P. cyanoptera and P. cucullata) were abundant. Two speci- 
mens of Larvivora cyanea (not yet recorded from Sumatra) 
were obtained in November. 
81. Sharpe on the Collection of Birds in the British 
Museum. 
[The History of the Collections contained in the Natural History 
Department of the British Museum. Vol. II. Sect. 8, Birds, by Dr. R. 
Bowdler Sharpe. London, 1906. } 
The history of the Birds of the National Collection at 
South Kensington takes up by far the largest portion of the 
second volume of this series, and extends to no less than 
435 pages. It is the product of the ever-active pen of 
Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, to whose unabating energy the 
enormous increase in the number and value of the speci- 
mens, particularly of late years, is mainly due. Dr. Sharpe 
tells us here the long story of the progress of the Collection 
from the days of Sir Hans Sloane (1753) to the present time, 
and gives us much valuable information upon the various 
contributions, by gift and purchase, which have made up the 
magnificent aggregate. We have not space to go into the 
many particulars of its progress, but may say that the 
shares taken in forming the collection by Dr. J. E. Gray, 
Mr. G. R. Gray, Dr. Gtinther, and Dr. Sharpe himself 
