Vol. xi.] 22 



Capt. Shelley in his first volume enumerates more than 2500 

 members of the African ornis, but he includes in his work 

 the species of Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands, which 

 do not strictly belong to the Ethiopian Region, in my opinion. 

 There must be, however, still considerable additions to be 

 made to the list. It is difficult to specify the most likely 

 localities for future researches, but the ranges north of 

 Mount Elgon (now easily accessible from Mombasa) and 

 the highlands of our new Protectorate of Nigeria deserve 

 special attention. Moreover, since the days of Riippell no 

 naturalist has visited the high plateau of the interior of 

 Abyssinia, and there is certainly much to be done in these 

 regions of Africa. 



IV. The Nearctic Region. 



Turning now our attention for a few moments to the 

 New World, we may, as already hinted, safely leave the 

 Ornis of the Nearctic Region in the care of our good friends 

 in the United States. In the last number of c The Auk ' 

 we are informed that the first volume of Mr. Ridgway's 

 long-promised work on ' The Birds of North and Middle 

 America ; will shortly be issued. It will probably run to 

 seven volumes, and will deal with about 3000 species and 

 subspecies. This is welcome intelligence, as we know that 

 the work will be thorough and exhaustive, even though we 

 may not always agree with the nomenclature employed in 

 its pages. 



V. The Neotropical Region. 



In the ' Nomenclator Avium Neotropicalium/ published 

 twenty-eight years ago, upwards of 2500 species were assigned 

 to the Neotropical Avifauna, and at least 500 more, I should 

 estimate, have been added to it since that period. The 

 Neotropical Region is without doubt the richest in bird-life 

 of the six great zoological areas of the globe, and is scarcely 

 surpassed in extraordinary forms by the Papuan Subregion 

 of Australasia. In the division of the Neotropical Region 



