74 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



two Others starting together at apex, one going to inner margin 

 at about one-half, the other to the anal angle ; the whole of 

 the surface irrorated with dark brown. 



Locality. — Herberton, Queensland (in the collection of Mr. 

 C. French, F.L.S.) 



BOOK NOTICES. 



The British Museum Catalogue of Birds. — Although not 

 numerically the last, the last published of the twenty-six volumes 

 of the British Museum Catalogue of Birds has reached Australia. 

 The whole work may fairly claim to be one of the most important 

 aids to the study of ornithology ever produced. The first volume 

 appeared in 1874, the others following at intervals of rather less 

 than a year. Dr. Bowdler Sharpe undertook the lion's share of the 

 work, and was ably assisted by other authorities who had specially 

 devoted themselves to certain groups, viz. — the late Mr. Henry 

 Seebohm, Dr. H. Gadow, Messrs. P. L. Sclater, O. Salvin, E. 

 Hartert, W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, E. Hargitt, Howard Saunders, Cap- 

 tain Shelly, and Count Salvadori. , The work has been a prodigious 

 labour, based on examining no less than 11,548 species contained 

 in the British Museum and giving full descriptions of both sexes 

 and, as far as possible, all stages of plumage. There was besides 

 an exhaustive research into all existing literature, &c. The 

 volumes contain, in addition to numerous woodcuts, 378 col- 

 oured plates of species not previously figured, or, if so, in an 

 inadequate manner. According to the present arrangement, the 

 11,548 species, of which 760 are claimed to be Australian, have 

 been grouped into 2,255 genera. The avial population of the 

 world has now been so far investigated that it is hardly probable 

 that the number of species for the whole globe can exceed 13,000. 

 The collection at the British Museum contains 350,000 birds' 

 skins and 50,000 eggs. It is worthy of note that, with one excep- 

 tion, all the authors of the Catalogue are members of the British 

 Ornithologists' Union. 



"A Key to the Birds of Australia and Tasmania." — 

 Advance proof-sheets are to hand of a concise handbook to the 

 birds of Australia and Tasmania, which is being prepared for pub- 

 lication by Mr. Robert Hall, whose close observations of bird life 

 are well known to readers of the Naturalist. The author bases 

 his list on the arrangement and nomenclature of the British 

 Museum Catalogue just completed, and expects to complete in 

 rather more than 100 pages a series of brief descriptions, giving 

 the characteristic features of all orders, families, genera, and 

 species of birds found in Australia and Tasmania. In most 

 cases the dimensions of average specimens are given, as well as 

 synonymic and vernacular names. The continent has been 

 divided into regions as indicated on the map accompanying the 



