Recent Ornithological Publications. 535 



journey over the ice — testimony moreover which is confirmed by 

 that careful observer Sir Edward Parry himself (Narrative^ &c., 

 pp. 81, 110) . Though Ross's blunder with regard to the Razor- 

 bill shows, as Dr. Malmgren truly says, that he was not a 

 skilled ornithologist, yet it is not easy to see how he should 

 have made such a mistake in this instance; and it may still 

 be that this extremely rare bird inhabits the circumpolar re- 

 gions, and that it really was seen on that occasion. May tlie 

 question speedily obtain a solution by the organization of a 

 properly equipped expedition to explore those solitudes ! 



Magdalene College, Cambridge, 

 September 1865. 



XL. — Recent Ornithological Publications, 



1. English. 

 We are indebted to the kindness of Mr. G. R. Gray for a 

 copy of. his ^Catalogue of British Birds'^, the existence of 

 which, though it bears the date 1863 on its title-page, has 

 been, until a few weeks past, entirely unknown to us, and, we 

 believe we may add, to almost all our ornithological friends. It 

 would be vain to speculate on the causes which for nearly two 

 years have kept this useful volume in seclusion. It has long 

 been known that the Zoological Department of the British 

 Museum received but a very scanty portion of the consideration 

 it deserved at the hands of those who chiefly direct the whole 

 establishment ; but we never expected to find the labours of one 

 of their oldest officers would be so entirely ignored as in this 

 instance they appear to have been. Of the merits of the work 

 we need scarcely speak; for all our readers are acquainted with the 

 painstaking accuracy that distinguishes all Mr. George Gray's 

 synonymatic catalogues ; and this one is in reality a second edi- 

 tion of his well-known ' List,' which was printed in 1850, with 

 such additional information as the author thinks necessai-y. 

 Some slight slips there are, as, for instance, the statement (p. 244) 

 that the White-winged Black Tern is " found in most parts of 



* Catalogue of British Birds in the Collection of the British Museum. 

 By George Robert Gray, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. London : printed by order 

 of the Trustees, 1863. 8vo. pp. 248. 



N. S. VOL. I. 2 O 



