530 Recent Oimithological Publications. 



The 'Bulletin de la Societe d^Acclimatation et d'Histoire Na- 

 turelle de Tile de la Reunion/ for 1865, contains a " Note sur 

 VOxynotus feirucjineus," by M. Franyois Pollen, one of the 

 Assistant Naturalists of the Leyden Museum, who dates his 

 communication from that island, where this singular bird ap- 

 pears to be more common than we have reason to believe it is 

 in Mauritius — the only other locality in which it is found : 

 indeed, until the publication of M. Maillard's work ('Ibis,' 

 1863, pp. 103, 104), the best authorities thought it was exclu- 

 sively confined to Mauritius. M. Pollen describes at length 

 the different plumages of this species, which varies greatly ac- 

 cording to age and sex, the adult male having no ferruginous in 

 its colouring — a circumstance, we suppose, that has led Dr. 

 Hautlaub very lately (J, f. 0. 1865, p. 160) to alter the spe- 

 cific name of the bird from ferrugineus into typicus. M. Pollen 

 speaks highly of the value of the services which Oxynotus 

 renders to agriculturalists ; but as he states that it inhabits the 

 most impenetrable forests, we do not easily see how it often gets 

 an opportunity to be useful to mankind. Nothing yet is known 

 for certain respecting its manner of breeding. We should like 

 to hear of examples of the Oxynotus of Reunion being closely 

 compared with specimens from Mauritius. Some of the latter, 

 which are. before us as we write, seem not to agree exactly with 

 the author's descriptions and figures of the former. 



3. Swiss. 

 It is with extreme gratification that we have to announce to 

 our readers the foundation of an Ornithological Society in 

 Switzerland, and to acknowledge the receipt of their first publica- 

 tion*. There is probably no nation on the Continent with which 

 our countrymen generally have so much real sympathy as with 

 the Swiss, whether it springs from the mere fact that in the me- 

 mories of so many of us there are agreeable recollections of 

 pleasant holidays passed among the most glorious scenei'y in 

 Europe, or from more recondite reflections on the bond of union 

 which the enjoyment by each people of the most perfect liberty 

 of thought and act necessarily creates. This sympathy, how- 

 ever arising, will assuredly not be lessened by the intelligence 

 '* Bulletin de la Societe Oi'nithologique Suisse. Tome I. V^ Partie. 

 Geneve et Bale : (H. Georg, Libraire) 1865. 



