Bibliographical Notices. 19? 



The chapter comparing the flora with that of Holland induces one 

 to wish that this had been carried further, so little of such work 

 has been attempted in British local floras. Being the work of the 

 late Dr. Babington, Dr. Hind probably did right iu so leaving it ; 

 none the less it is to be regretted. One plant, however, stated to 

 be absent from Holland is not so, i. e. Peucedanum palustre, 

 Moench., but occurs in many parts abundantly ; doxibtless the slip 

 has occurred from the Dutch botanists putting it under the genus 

 Thysselinium, Hoffra. ; had it been absent it would have been a 

 remarkable fact in distribution. Arenaria leptoclados and Galium 

 VaiUantii are also Dutch species. 



The chapter on " The Progress of Botanical Study in Suffolk " 

 contains much interesting matter and satisfactorily concludes the 

 work. 



The writer would suggest that if a new edition is at any time 

 undertaken a careful examination should be made of the material at 

 Kew, in Smith's and Winch's herbaria at the Linnean Society, and 

 in the British herbarium at the Natural-History Museum at Ken- 

 sington ; in the first two there certainly is additional matter, and 

 though very time-consuming, the want, if known, may be filled by 

 some one. In these matters we miss that kind and ever-helpful 

 botanist the late Rev. W. W. Newbould. 



Arthur Bennett. 



The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Banna. Pub- 

 lished under the Authority of the Secretary of State for India in 

 Council. Edited by W. T. Bianford. Birds.— Vol. I. By 

 Eugene W. Oates. London : Taylor aud Francis. 



In his able Preface the Editor of this series justly congratulates 

 Indian ornithologists upon the acquisition of the services of the 

 author of ' The Birds of Burmah,' a work which, from the excel- 

 lence of its letterpress, deserves to be bracketed with Col. Legge's 

 ' Birds of Ceylon.' From the scientific point of view the present 

 volume and the two which are to follow will supersede the well- 

 known and classic Jerdon, although many old Indians, who care little 

 for classification, will continue to dwell with pleasure on the badly- 

 printed pages from which they received their earliest lessons in 

 bird-lore. In this they will be justified by the fact that Jerdon's 

 work contains more ample notes on migration, habits, folk-lore, &c. 

 than will be found in Mr. Oates's book, owing to the limits assigned 

 by the authorities to the number and size of the volumes which 

 make up this series. When we consider that the sum total of species 

 enumerated by Jerdon will bo exceeded in the present work by more 

 than one half, the necessity for compression by the author will be 

 obvious. The increase is largely due to the extension of the area now 

 comprised in British India, but also to the number of additional 

 species that have been recorded from localities which were little 

 known in Jerdon's time, when such collections as those now in the 

 Ann. (& Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 6. Vol. v. 15 



