Recent Ornithological Publications. 403 
other hand, the worthy Brisson’s descriptions of the 38 species 
of birds from Madagascar, principally taken from specimens 
sent by Poivre to the Reaumurian collection, are, as is always 
the case with that author, very full and complete, and may be 
relied upon as indicating valid species, though some of them 
have not been found again up to the present time. Sonnerat, 
in his f Voyage a la Chine/ Desjardins in the ( Proceedings ’ of 
the Societe d’Hist. Nat. de Pisle Maurice, and Dr. A. Smith in 
the ‘ South-African Quarterly Journal/ were the next succeeding 
contributors to the ornithology of Madagascar, but none of 
them to any very great extent. But about twenty-five years 
ago a new and happier era for our knowledge of this ornithology 
began with the labours of several French travellers and savants. 
Victor Sganzin, at one time Commandant of the French island of 
St. Marie, on the eastern coast of Madagascar, who has published 
his notes on the mammals and birds observed during his resi¬ 
dence there, in the Memoirs of the N. H. Society of Strasburg, 
was one of the earliest of these. Bernier, Goudot, and Rous¬ 
seau, three well-known names among those of the Naturaliste- 
voyageurs who have contributed so largely to the enrichment 
of the French National Collection, succeeded Sganzin in his 
explorations. Their many brilliant discoveries have been made 
known to the world by the scientific labours of I. GeofFroy 
St.-Hilaire, de Lafresnaye, and Pucheran. In 1848 Dr. Hart- 
laub turned his special attention towards the ornithology of 
Madagascar, and published a complete resume of what was then 
known on the subject in the first volume of D’Alton and Bur- 
meister’s * Zeitung fur Zoologie/ As it will be observed that 
Dr. Hartlaub has in his present work nearly doubled his list of 
species, it will be evident that our knowledge of this peculiar 
fauna has been considerably increased since that period. This 
has been effected partly by the labours of the Austrian botanist 
Bojer and Madame Ida Pfeiffer, whose specimens have been de¬ 
posited in the Vienna Museum, and critically examined for Dr. 
Hartlaub’s work by A. v. Pelzeln, partly by small collections 
made by William Jardine (son of Sir William Jardine) at Bo- 
janna Bay, and by Prof. Peters at St. Augustin’s Bay, and partly 
by closer investigations of the Museums of Paris, Vienna, Leyden, 
