THE NIDOLOGIST 
[Publications for review should be sent to DR. R. W. SHUF- 
ELDT, Associate in Zoology, Smithsonian Institution, Wash- 
ington, D. C.] 
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. 
Ge Ee SHDELEVAp Hara. See hi el GaSe EL a 27a; 
of Africa. Vol. I. Lond, 1896. [From the 
author. ] 
Count TOMMASo SALVADORI. Viaggio di Lamberto 
Loria nella Papuasia Orienta’. Nota quarta. Uc- 
celli della Nuova Guinea Meridionate-Orientale. 
[From the author; ) 
OxntvE THorNE MriLer. Four-handed Folk. 
‘With illustrations. Houghton, Mifflin and Com- 
pany. 1896, 12 mo. pp. I-IV, 1-201. Price 
$1.25. (From the publisher.) 
Report of the Council of the Zoological Society of 
London, for the year 1895. April 29, 1896. 
London. (From the Society.) 
Bulletin of the British Ornithologists Club. 
XXXV. (From the Secretary.) 
Shelley on the Birds of Africa. Our ornitholog- 
ical confreres in Great Britain are bringing out in these 
days not a few very excellent works upon birds and 
their eggs. Part III of Mr. Frank Poynting’s Eggs 
of British Birds has appeared, and by this time Part 
IV is doubtless also issued. In two handsome Royal 
8vo volumes, Lord Lilford gives us his most interesting 
‘Notes on the Birds of Northamptonshire and Neigh- 
borhood,’”? volumes that are destined to be read far 
beyond the limits of the locality where they were writ- 
ten. The IVth Part of Newton’s ‘‘Dictionary of Birds” 
will soon be in our hands, and now comes a formidable 
work upon the Birds of Africa, and one that will be 
welcomed far and wide among ‘the students of ornithol- 
ogy in general and that of the Dark Continent in parti- 
cular. Nearly thirty years have passed since Captain 
Shelley first began the study of the birds of Africa, and 
during this time he has made many superb collections 
of them at various points in that country. And, 
although the present ‘‘List”? gives no less than 2534 
species, its author says in Ze [ntroduction to it that 
the ‘‘ornithology of Africa is by no means exhausted, 
and we are daily extending our knowledge of the Ethio- 
pian Region and only just beginning to appreciate the 
vastness of its treasures.’? This work will consist of 
a series of handy volumes in themselves and the first- 
one, now before us, comprises a list of all the 
species known to occur in the Ethiopian reg- 
ion up to the date of its publication, with a 
reference to a good figure and to the page and volume 
of the Catalogue of the British Museum where the spec- 
ies is mentioned. 
Vol. II will be devoted to the classification and 
diagnosis of all the species. Much upon the geographi- 
cal distribution of the birds of Africa is given us here, 
and ornithologists will look with interest for the com- 
pletion of the other parts of this estimable work, wish- 
ing its author every success in his laborious task. 
Count Salvadori has given us (Est. d. Ann. del Mus. 
Cio. d. Stor. Nat. d. Genova. Ser. 2. v. XVI (XXXVI) 
17 Feb. e 10 Mar. 1896) a very excellent List of 187 
No. 
species of birds coilected at various points on the great 
island of New Guinea, The birds described are from 
the eastern Papuan districts, and many of the species 
are new to science. Unfortunately for most American 
ornithological students, the work is in Italian, though 
nevertheless, those who are interested in the ornis of 
New Guinea, and who are familiar with the immense 
list of Count Salvadori’s publications in ornithology, 
cannot afford to be without this valuable account in 
their libraries. 
Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller has proven in her entertain- 
ing little volume on ‘‘¥ouar-handed Folk,” that she is 
fully capable of rendering the popular history ofmammals 
co-equal in interest with that of birds. In most all 
large cities we find several establishments that deal in 
many kinds of living animals that are bought and sold 
as pets. Such places are daily frequented by those 
interested in natural history, and, indeed, these houses 
often exert the same educational influence that a small 
zoological garden does, and in that particular are fully 
as useful. These ‘‘bird-stores” are not entirely given 
over to the feathered-ones in nature but in them we 
meet also with living examples of monkeys, lemurs, . 
armadillos, rabbits, squirrels, and a miscellaneous col- 
lection of the mammals. The chapters in Mrs. Miller’s 
little book describe in a very fascinating and instructive 
vein the more common and prominent of these mamm- 
alian captives from foreign lands, and in so doing she 
has rendered the youth of our cities a positive service, 
to say nothing about the pleasure she has afforded her 
host of other readers of maturer years. 
The Report of the Council of Zoological Society of 
London, shows that that famous institution enjoyed a 
very prosperous year for 1895. The report, a small 
pamphlet octavo, prints 60 pages, and gives all the 
operations of the Society for the period indicated. Some 
of the statistics are extremely interesting, especially 
when we take the extraordinary size of the institution 
into consideration. For example on the Ist of January 
1896, the number of Fellows and Fellows Elect of the 
Society was no less than 3027, and the sum received 
for admission to the society’s gardens was £15,639. 
There having been 665,326 visitors during the year. One 
thousand and ninety-two deaths took place among the 
animals, while 2369 additions were made,of which 1267 
were birds. Donations, works published, contributions 
to the library, and, indeed, all else is conducted upon 
the same grand scale. It is to be hoped that the 
National Zoological Gardens at Washington may grow 
to the same proportions.ome day, but it is not likely 
until our nation becomes more homogeneous in composi- 
tion, and is controlled by a very different form of gov- 
ernment. 
From the minutes of the 34th meeting of the British 
Ornithologists’ Club, held at the Restaurant Frascati, 
32 Oxford street on the r5th of April, 1896, I take the 
following notes:—‘‘Dr. Bowdler Sharpe made some 
remarks on recent papers by Dr. J. A. Allen and Mr. 
Frank M. Chapman on the changes of colour in the 
plumage of birds without moult. Dr. Allen especially 
disagreed with the conclusions put forward by the late 
Edward Blyth aud other English and German natur- 
alists. As regarded the points in which Dr. Allen differed 
from the conclusions of Dr. Sharpe,the latter reaffirmed 
his conviction on the subject, ana could not endorse Dr. 
Allen’s views.” 
‘©A discussion followed, in which the Hon. Walter 
Rothschild, Mr. Howard Saunders, Mr. John Young, 
Mr. Hartert, and others took part, but owing to the 
lateness of the hour the debate was adjourned until the 
next meeting of the club on May 20 when Mr, Ogilvie 
