Recently published Ornithological Works. 173 
not be confined to a mere list of names without localities. 
Nor is it necessary to have two rival Lists of the birds of 
the same country based on different authorities. 
After finishing his four volumes of “ Birds ” in the 
‘ Fauna of South Africa/ Mr. W. L. Sclater prepared a 
Check-list of the species, including additions made during 
the progress of the work, and published* it in the 4 Annals 
of the South African Museum/ It enumerated about 
1848 species as then ascertained to belong to the South 
African Avifauna, and naturally followed, as closely as 
possible, the order and arrangement used in the four 
volumes of the ‘ Fauna/ The authors of the present work 
now give us a new “ Check-list ” with exactly the same 
title, and publish it as a “ Supplement ” to the 4 Annals 
of the Transvaal Museum/ Had they followed the 
classification and arrangement of the previous Check-list, 
making only the necessary additions and corrections, we 
should not have found fault with them. But, so far from 
doing this, they have “ gone to Berlin ” and taken their 
arrangement and nomenclature from Dr. Heichenow's 
4 Vogel Afrikas/ This is an excellent work, no doubt, 
but it is founded on entirely different principles from 
Mr. SclateHs book, and begins at the bottom of the Class 
of Birds instead of commencing with the highest. Thus 
the ornithologist in South Africa will be confronted with 
two rival systems, and, in many cases, will be puzzled how 
to choose between them. 
The Pretorian Check-list contains the names of 920 
species, and gives also the names in Dutch and English, 
together with references to the works of W. L, Sclater 
and Peichenow. At the end is placed a series of notes 
containing recent information on about 100 species. 
16. Lonnberg on Birds from Transbaicalia and Mongolia . 
[Notes on Birds collected by Mr. Otto Bamberg in Southern Trans¬ 
baikalia and Northern Mongolia. By Einar Lonnberg. Arkiv f. Zool. 
Band v. No. 9 (1909).] 
Dr. Lonnberg describes the collection of birds made by 
Mr. Otto Bamberg, of Weimar, during an expedition to 
