244 Recently published Ornithological Works. 
Mr. Rowley also gives ns in his present number excellent 
figures of Platycercus rowleyi, a lately described species from 
New Zealand, of Chalcophaps indica, and of the almost extinct 
Labrador Duck (S'omateria labradoria ). A disquisition on 
some of the extinct birds of the Mascarenes is also included 
amongst the varied contents. 
24. Mulsanfs ‘ Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux-Mouches ’ 
* [Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux-Mouches ou Colibris, constituant la 
famille des Trochilides. Par E. Mulsant et feu Edouard Verreaux. 4to, 
T. ii, Livr. 3 & 4; T. iii. Livr. 1 & 2. Lyon : 1876.J 
Since our last notice (Ibis, 1875, p. 510) Mons. Mulsant 
has made steady progress with bis work, so that now two 
thirds of it have been issued, six more Livraisons alone re¬ 
maining for its completion. The four Livraisons now before 
us seem quite equal in execution to those which have preceded 
them; and as the matter contained in them embraces refer¬ 
ences to the most recently published information respecting 
the Trochilidse, they give evidence to M. MulsanHs industry. 
The author’s system of minute generic subdivisions is still 
further carried out, and we notice several new generic names 
for sections of the microscopic genera into which the Hum¬ 
ming-birds have already been divided. The characters upon 
which these would-be genera rest prove, upon examination, 
to be drawn solely from style of coloration, and are, in our 
opinion, little more than of specific value in a wide sense. We 
notice that M. Mulsant maintains the old position assigned to 
the so-called Anthocephala castaneiventris (iii. p. 123), having 
apparently overlooked the remarks in the f Proceedings 9 of the 
Zoological Society of London (1870, p. 206), where this sup¬ 
posed species was almost conclusively proved to be the female 
of either Oreopyra leucaspis or O. calolcema —an opinion the 
correctness of which all subsequent experience has tended to 
confirm. The plates accompanying these parts include figures 
of Metallura jelskii and Heliangelus barali , species which had 
not before been delineated. 
