280 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



A List of the Diurnal Birds of Prey, tvith references and anno- 

 tations; also a Record of Specimens preserved in the Norfolk 

 and Nonoich Museum. By John Henry Gurney. 8vo. 

 London : Van Voorst. 1884. 



Mr. J. H. Gurney has just published a list of the Diurnal 

 Birds of Prey, which will form a most useful work of reference 

 for the student of this group, on which Mr. Gurney is so great 

 an authority. For several years past he has been publishing in 

 tlie pages of ' The Ibis,' an elaborate critique of Mr. Bowdler 

 Sharpe's Accipitrine volume of the British Museum Catalogue 

 of Birds, to which series the present list was intended as an 

 index. Mr. Gurney has, however, given his work a wider scope, 

 to the great benefit of Science ; for besides supplying an index 

 to 'The Ibis' papers, he lias added useful references lo standard 

 works, and has noted the number of examples in the Norwich 

 Museum. Knowing how much tlie splendid series of Accipitres 

 in this museum is indebted for its formation to the individual 

 energy and liberality of Mr. Gurney himself, who has rendered 

 this collection celebrated throughout the world, one only regrets 

 that an exact list, with localities and dates of the specimens, has 

 not been given, for it is well known that the utmost care has 

 been bestowed on their selection. Possibly, with the ground- 

 work supplied by the present list, Mr. Gurney may feel enabled 

 to complete his ' Catalogue of Ilaptores in the Norwich Museum,' 

 an undertaking which we can assure him will be well appreciated 

 by ornithologists. 



We cannot attempt to follow Mr. Gurney in his classification 

 of the Accipitres, nor are we able to recognize all the genera 

 which he admits, since many of them appear to be founded on 

 peculiarities of coloration and not of structure. These are 

 matters of opinion, however, and do not affect the value of 

 Mr. Gurney's work. In a series of Appendices will be found 

 some short essays on certain vexed questions, and every one who 

 studies this volume as it deserves to be studied will find it a 

 most useful handbook to the Accipitres, containing the latest 

 information on the order in a desirably small compass. 



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