Recent Ornithological Publications. 401 
the “ Beagle”), and Dr. Tams and Dr. Albers, who subsequently 
collected a certain number of mollusks in these islands at two 
different epochs, has even alluded to their zoology. M. Arthur 
Morelet, already well known to science for his labours in con- 
chology, and for the collections in other branches of natural his¬ 
tory with which he has enriched the French National Museum 
in the Jardin des Plantes, visited the Azores in 1857, in com¬ 
pany with M. Drouet, with the object of studying the Malacolo- 
gical fauna of the Archipelago, and passed six months in this 
occupation. The volume now published contains the results of 
their investigations into this branch of zoology, and at the same 
time gives a general sketch of the whole fauna, though M. 
Morelet acknowledges with regret that they did not pay much 
attention to other objects besides those to which they particu¬ 
larly devoted themselves. 
It is well known that when the Azores, so named from the 
abundance of hawks ( Aqores , Latine Astures) met with upon 
them when first visited, were occupied by the Portuguese in 
the sixteenth century, these islands did not possess any human 
inhabitants. What is still more surprising, is that, with the 
exception of birds, they were also destitute of any species of 
vertebrated animal, and that at the present moment the only 
indigenous mammal is a species of Bat ( Vespertilio leisleri), pro¬ 
bably imported from the North of Europe. The Avi-fauna of 
the Azores embraces, according to M. Morelet, about 30 species 
of residents and regular visitors, which are all strictly of the 
European type. The Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola ), the Bed 
Partridge (Caccabis rufa), the Quail (Coturnicc dactylisonans) } the 
Wood Pigeon, and certain Water-fowl, are common, and render 
to the islanders an abundant supply of game in the season. 
The other birds are mostly, as far as M. Morelet can tell us, of 
common and well-known species; though, singularly enough, 
the only two of which, as we believe, M. Morelet brought home 
examples, are of great interest, being, one, a new species of true 
Finch (Fringilla moreleti), and the other the larger European 
Bullfinch, named by M. de Selys Pyrrhula coccinea. We have 
already* noticed Dr. Pucheran’s notes on these two species, which 
* Ibis, 1859, p. 322, et 1860, p. 93. 
