Recently published Ornithological Works. 341 



is scarcely perceptible to the eye, and, in consequence, 

 the results are excellent and far ahead of those attained in 

 Mr. Dresser's work, which were in some cases very dis- 

 appointing, especially where large numbers of small eggs 

 were photographed together. These figures have all the 

 brightness and purity of colour that one sees in the eggs 

 themselves and generally fails to find in the reproduction. 

 When we come to the choice of specimens figured, we find 

 the plan of confining the selection to one collection has 

 resulted in the figuring in many cases of only the common 

 types. Occasionally we find that Heer van Pelt Lechner's 

 collection includes a fairly wide range of variation (as in 

 the case of Emberiza citrinella) ; but the four eggs figured 

 oi Corvus frugilegus might have all been taken from a single 

 tree in any rookery, and give no idea of the variation in this 

 species, and the same may be said o£ many others. As 

 illustrations of typical eggs, they are, however, in most 

 cases excellent, and in some instances have never been 

 excelled ; but we must make an exception to plate 43, 

 which purports to represent the eggs of Parus cristatus 

 mitratus. The writer has taken the eggs of this race 

 personally in North Brabant, and has before him a series of 

 the eggs of two or three other forms of Crested Tit; and in 

 every case they are heavily marked with red with a very 

 decided tendency to a zone at the large end. Even if the 

 eggs figured are genuine, which we greatly doubt, they are 

 quite abnormal, and should have been excluded from a work 

 in which the usual types are figured. The illustrations of 

 the eggs of Phylloscopus collybita (plate 57) are also scarcely 

 characteristic of this species. 



When we come to consider the letterpress which accom- 

 panies each plate, we note one omission which it is not yet 

 too late to remedy, but which may render the whole work 

 one of only secondary importance if not attended to. 

 Although each figure is distinguished by a letter, there is 

 no information whatever given as to the origin of the speci- 

 mens figured. They are all, we believe, from the Van Pelt 

 Lechner collection, and probably in most cases of Dutch 



