2750 The Zoologist — September, 1871. 



Harelda Stelleri of Keyserling and Blasius. 



Heniconetta Stelleri of Agassiz. 



Somateria Stelleri of Newton. 

 Those who consider this name-changing the chief end and 

 object of Natural History may take comfort in the assurance that, 

 although Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser have lost their chance, out of 

 the next dozen authors who write of the tufted duck at least half-a- 

 dozen will give it as many new names. 



An excellent feature in the work is, that chapter and verse are 

 given for every record of the occurrence of rarities in Britain : the 

 long string of occurrences of the black woodpecker is very amusing ; 

 our authors not only give them without endorsement, but em- 

 phatically state "we ourselves do not believe in the authenticity of 

 one of these records." This is only fair to their readers, for were 

 these statements left without note or comment it is certain that they 

 would be again and again cited under the authority of two such 

 good names. The geographical range of Picus martius extends 

 from the German Ocean to the Sea of Okhotsk; thus its claim to 

 a place in the * Birds of Europe' cannot be disputed ; but I believe 

 that it must cease to make its appearance in our British lists. 



One word as to the plates drawn by Mr. Keulenians; they are 

 admirable. It is a favourite idea to represent stuffed birds, — to 

 give with painstaking accuracy the impressions made by the bird- 

 stuffer's bands or threads, — and thus to convince the beholder that 

 the bird was drawn from the object jtself Mr. Keulemans abandons 

 this course, and endeavours to represent the bird as it would appear 

 in life : it is true he does not know, in every instance, how the 

 living bird would deport itself, but he most certainly gives us an 

 ideal bird which we feel quite willing to accept for the real. 



In referring to the actual specimen described, Messrs. Sharpe 

 and Dresser have done their readers a great service, for there 

 cannot be a doubt that long residence in an island like ours, and 

 the continuous interbreeding with relations, is likely to produce a 

 modified race ; not one indicative of spec-ific difference, — for the 

 perfect eugenisra which I have described as the only reliable 

 character ol'a true species, presents an insuperable barrier to tliat, — • 

 but that slight difference which enables an expert to say of a tit- 

 mouse, " That is a British skin," or " That is not a British skin." 

 In turning over Mr. Gould's magnificent work, we may every now 

 and then fancy we detect a British skin in his * Birds of Europe,' 



