Recently published Ornithological Works. 505 
are fully stated, and that the result is a very interesting 
disquisition on this subject which should be read by all 
ornithologists. 
Much new information is given by Dr. Sharpe concerning 
the little-known “ Watling’s Drawings” (1778-1792) which 
were acquired by the Museum in 1902, and upon which 
Latham founded many new species of birds. A complete 
~* list of these drawings, 295 in number, is added, and valuable 
.© explanations regarding the species to which they should be 
referred are afforded. Similar important explanations are 
also given respecting the drawings of Parkinson, Foster, and 
Ellis, upon which other species of birds were founded by 
Latham. 
The second part of Dr. Sharpe’s article contains a detailed 
chronological account of the accessions made to the bird- 
collection from 1809 to the present time. It also contains a 
full history of the celebrated sale of the “ Bullock Collection ” 
in 1819, at which some, but unfortunately not all, of the 
historic specimens were purchased by Dr. Leach for the 
British Museum. The chief additions made every year from 
1837 (when the official Register of acquisitions was com- 
menced) to 1905 are successively enumerated. The article 
then concludes with an alphabetical list of the principal 
donors, collectors, and agents from whom the specimens 
of birds now in the British Museum have been received. 
This occupies some two hundred pages, and will be of very 
great use to working ornithologists. It is the more in- 
teresting as it is interspersed with many particulars about 
the lives and work of the more prominent persons who have 
contributed to the great National Bird-collection. 
In concluding, we cannot but express our wonder that 
Dr, Sharpe should have found time to collect and put 
together in an accessible form so much valuable infor- 
mation on this subject. 
The following passage from the volume gives the names of 
some of the principal contributors to the great collection 
which Dr. Sharpe has for the past thirty years had under his 
charge :—“ Thanks to the donations of Mr. Allan Hume, 
Col. Wardlaw Ramsay, Dr. Godman, Mr. Osbert Salvin, 
