42 
ZOOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 
Wallace will not allow, however, that osteological characters are 
an all-sufficing guide, believing that the whole structure of a 
bird and its corresponding habits may be profoundly modified, 
while its sternum may closely resemble a common form, and 
vice vei'sd. He is also now quite convinced that the Psittaci 
deserve to rank as a primary division of the class of Birds. After 
remarking more particularly upon M. Blanchard^s determination, 
from the body of the sternum only, of the affinities of Merops, 
Tamatiaj the PicidcBj Pteroglossus, Megalcema, and Nyctiornis, 
he states that the comparison of the entire sternum, with its 
appendages, and also of the cranium would afford a more satis- 
factory basis than that proposed by M. Blanchard; and consi- 
ders that the texture of the plumage, the form j^nd arrangement 
of the feathers, and many other characters aye of 4 lmp$t eqqal 
importance. 
PALiEABCTIC REGION. 
Collett, Robert. Oversigt af Christiania Omegns ornitho- 
logiske Fauna. Christiania; 1864. Nyt Mag. for Natur- 
vidensk. Physiogr. Forening, hi. part 3. pp. 231. 
Two hundred and thirty species have been noticed as occurring, 
and 169 as breeding in the district, out of the 244 of which the 
Norwegian avifauna consists. The paper is not entirely free 
from errors (cf. ^ Ibis,^ 1865, p. 227) ; but a good deal of care 
and labour have obviously been expended upon it, and, as it is 
nearly twenty years since any publication on the Ornis of the 
district appeared, Mr. Collettes observations are not without 
their use. 
Du Bois, C. F. Planches Colories des Oiseaux de FEurope 
et de leurs oeufs, especes non observees en Belgique. 
Bruxelles : 1864. 
This work is only known to us from the critical remarks in 
the ^Ibis^ (1864, p. 396). It appears to be supplementary to 
the author’s ^ Oiseaux de Belgique,’ and its excellence is not 
very highly spoken of by the reviewer, 
Fritsch, Anton. Naturgesehichte der Vogel Europas. Heft 
9. Prag; 1864. Folio. 
Of this work we have only seen some of the earlier parts. 
We extract the information above given from Zuchold’s Biblio- 
theca Historico-Naturalis,’ July-December 1864. 
Gould, John. The Birds of Great Britain. Parts v. and vi. 
London ; 1864. Imperial folio. 
This gi-and work, which was begun in 1862, is continued at 
