174 
Mr. P. L. Sclater on new 
subject would be enough to satisfy the British public at the 
present time ; but it appears that such is not the case, for we 
are told that a new edition of Dr. Breeds f Birds of Europe 9 
is called for, and will be commenced forthwith. 
Persia, as intervening between the well-known faunas of 
Europe and India, is a most interesting country as regards 
the geographical aspect of ornithology. We are rejoiced to 
hear that there is at last every prospect of our becoming well 
acquainted with it. Major St. John and Mr. Blanford are 
now in this country preparing a report upon the expedition 
which they were engaged in on the eastern frontiers of Persia 
last year. The second volume of this work, to which the 
Indian Government has accorded considerable assistance, 
will be prepared by Mr. Blanford, and will be devoted entirely 
to the zoology of Persia. The series of birds is large; and 
Mr. Blanford’s thorough acquaintance with Indian and Euro¬ 
pean forms will render his account of the intervening district 
of great value to science. 
As regards the more central portions of the Palsearctic 
Region, we hear that the new Russian expedition under Prshe- 
valski has lately returned to St. Petersburg*, having amassed 
large zoological treasures in the great desert of Gobi and ad¬ 
jacent parts of Tibet. The species of birds obtained number 
292, among which are said to be new species of Gyps , Turdus , 
Pterorhinus, and Podoces. The first volume of Prshevalski’s 
work on the results of this expedition, to be entitled f Mon¬ 
golia and the country of the Tanguts/ will appear before the 
end of the year. 
M. Severtzoff has published his researches upon the Fauna 
of Turkestan in the f Transactions 9 of the Imperial Society 
of Naturalists of Moscow, under the title of “ Turkestanskie 
Sevotnie.” Unfortunately the whole book is in Russian, so 
that it is not possible for a person unacquainted with that 
abnormal language to make much of it. It is, however, an 
important work; and we hope, with Mr. Dresser’s kind aid, to 
give some account of it in our next number. 
* See Petermann’s e Mittheilungen,’ 1874, p. 41, for some account of this 
adventurous expedition; likewise t The Gtographical Magazine ’ for April 
1874, p. 5. 
