520 Recently pvblished Ornithological Works. 



beak of Rhyticeros, the corrugations of which have 

 been supposed to indicate the age of the bird. This, 

 Mr. Streseraann believes, is not the case. 



A coloured plate illustrates Oreosterops pinaice apd Stiff- 

 matops monticola, new species previously described, and 

 Andruphilus d. musculus, here described for the first time. 



Stresemnnn on the History of the Paradise-bird. 



[Was wussten die Scliviftsteller des XVI. Jahrhimderts von den 

 Paradiesvogeln ? Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Oriiithologie. Von 

 Erwin Stresemann. Nov. Zool., Ti'ing, xxi. 1914, pp. 13-24, 2 pis.] 



The traffic in the plumage of the Paradise-bird com- 

 menced some time previous to the discovery of the Aru 

 Islands or New Guinea, and the earliest notice of the birds 

 in print is believed by Mr. Stresemann to be that of the 

 Papal Secretary, Gian Francisco Poggio Bracciolini, who 

 published in 1492, at Milan, a work entitled, " India 

 recognita." The information contained in this was chiefly 

 derived from Nicolo de Conti, a Venetian merchant, who 

 travelled in the east from 1415 to 1440, and spent some 

 nine months in Java. He alludes to certain birds found in 

 Java, of the size of a dove, with long tails and wings which 

 are used as ornamental head-dresses. 



About a hundred years later, in 1521, Magalhaen's 

 expedition reached Tidore in the Moluccas, and two Birds 

 of Paradise were given to Elcauo, now the commander of 

 the expedition, to take back to the King of Spain. 



Mr. Stresemann has traced out in detail all these old 

 allusions to the Bird of Paradise, and has also discovered 

 the origin of Aldrovandi's Manucodiata prima and Manu- 

 codiata secunda, in some interesting old water-colour 

 drawings by an unknown Italian artist of the 16th century, 

 now preserved in the Tring Museum. 



Thayer and Bangs on Siberian Birds. 



[Notes on the Birds and Mammals of the Arctic coasts of East Siberia. 

 Birds by John E. Thayer and Outram Bangs. Proceedings of the New 

 England Zoological Club, v. 1914, pp. 1-66. J 



This is an account of a collection made by Mr. Johan 

 Koren chiefiv at the mouth of the Kolvma River in north- 



