5 [Vol. xiii. 



volume on the 'Birds of South Africa ' has been finished, 

 and that he is now engaged in correcting the printed proofs. 

 This volume will contain an account of the Picarire, Striges, 

 and Accipitres, and a fourth volume will complete the 

 work. 



IV. Nearctic Region. 



The Nearctic Region we may safely leave in the hands of 

 our American brethren. The first volume of Mr. Ridgway's 

 great work on the Birds of North and Middle America 

 (which has been noticed in the July number of ' The Ibis ') 

 includes the birds of Panama and the Galapagos Islands, 

 and, when completed, will give us an excellent summary of 

 our knowledge of the Nearctic Avifauna. Some of us may 

 doubt the wisdom of multitudinous subspecies, and not quite 

 agree with a nomenclature in which casual errors and gram- 

 matical mistakes are proposed to be stereotyped for all ages. 

 But none of us can doubt the solidity of Mr. Ridgway's work 

 or the careful way in which it has been prepared, and wc 

 wish him every success in completing his arduous task. 



V. Neotropical Region. 



Our American brethren, having already annexed the 

 Trans-Panamanic division of the Neotropical Region, have 

 of late years pushed their researches into the northern 

 portion of the adjacent Colombian Subregion. Several 

 papers by Mr. Bangs and other ornithologists on the birds 

 of Santa Marta have lately been noticed in 'The Ibis,' and 

 we need not say more about them on the present occasion. 

 We have also lately had excellent contributions to our know- 

 ledge of the birds of the tropics of South America from 

 Graf von Berlepsch, Mr. Hartert, and other ornithologists. 

 It may suffice to say here that, in spite of all that has been 

 already done, an enormous field of ornithological work still 

 remains to be explored in the centre of the Neotropical 

 Region. The most southern part of it is not so productive 

 in bird-life, and has been much more thoroughly worked, 



