not observed in the British Isles.’ 
95 
the Indian continent, and in Africa from south to north. It is 
common in Egypt, and it occurs in Java, New Holland, and also 
in the southern part of North America.” Now, by all modern 
authors of repute, the North American Swallow-tailed Kite 
(.Elanoides furcatus, Vieill.)* is justly removed from the genus 
Elanns; and then, of this genus as thus restricted, there are cer¬ 
tainly three other, well marked-species, besides the European, 
of which we are at present speaking. These are, the American 
White-tailed Kite (E. leucurus , Vieill.), of which plates may be 
found in Mr. Audubon’s work (B. Am. pis. 351, 352), and 
the Australian Axillary and Letter-winged Kites (E. axillaris, 
Lath, and E. scriptus ), both well figured by Mr. Gould (B. 
Austr. i. pis. 23, 24), which not only in their geographical range, 
but in their characters to be perceived even at first sight, are 
undeniably distinct from E . melanopterus. 
We are glad that our author has not included Falco peregri- 
no'ides. of Sir A. Smith in his work—it is a truly South African 
species, and we are not aware of its occurrence within European 
limits. So also of Tinnunculus rupicolus (Daud.), though the 
Norwich Museum contains a specimen said to be from Greece,— 
not a very likely locality for this bird. 
We regret that Mr. Bree has not thought fit to adhere to the 
rules of nomenclature now almost universally adopted, especially 
when introducing so many species, it may be for the first time, 
to the majority of his readers. In the present article we have 
called the subjects of our author’s work by those names which 
in the opinion of almost all naturalists should be applied to 
them. We trust that for the future he will take care of this. 
Let him be assured that by not doing so, he is throwing a most 
serious obstacle in the way of beginners; and, if we might be 
permitted to tender our advice to such persons, we would strongly 
recommend them at once to get in the way of using those names 
which inevitably will be adopted at last. 
It remains for us to remark upon the plates in Mr. Bree’s 
work. As examples of printing in colours, which we believe they 
are, they are very successful, and much superior to those in the 
kindred book of Mr. Morris; but they are not always, when 
regarded solely from an ornithological point of view, very accu- 
