Recently published Ornithological Works. 553 
twelve pages, accompanied by illustrations of the birds and 
plants. 
85. Rear ton on British Breeding Birds. 
[Our Rarer British Birds, their Nests, Eggs, and Summer Haunts. 
By Richard Kearton. Illustrated by Photographs by 0. Kearton. 8vo. 
Cassell & Co.] 
We can thoroughly recommend this little book (some 160 
pages in all) for the beauty of its photogravures and the 
accuracy of its letterpress. Few naturalists have travelled 
so widely in the British Islands and taken so much pains to 
obtain good photographs as these two enterprising brothers. 
Some species are included which are not, strictly speaking, 
“ rare/'’ but the reason is that good examples of their nests 
were not available in 1895, when the work on f British Birds’ 
Nests ’ was published, to which this is a supplement; no one, 
however, will deny that epithet to the Kite, Osprey, Marsh- 
and Montagu’s Harriers, Buzzard, and Great Skua, while 
Fulmars, Fork-tailed Petrels, and Red-necked Phalaropes 
have not often been photographed “ at home.” Mr. Kearton’s 
remarks on the protection of our rarer species are eminently 
characterized by sense, as distinguished from sentiment. 
86. Mercer at on the Stereornithes. 
[Sur les Stereornithes. Par A. Mercerat. Comunicaciones del Mus. 
Nac. de Buenos Aires, tome i. p. 161 (1899).] 
In this notice the author protests against certain opinions 
which he states have been attributed to him by Dr. Andrege 
in a review (Neues Jahrbuch f. Min., Geol. u. Paleont. 1899, ii. 
pp. 322-330), and in which several inaccuracies occur. He 
further remarks that he regards the Stereornithes as a “gens” 
of the Order Pelargornithes of Fiirbringer, and that they 
are related to the suborder Ciconiiformes as the Gastornithes 
are related to the Anseriformes: moreover, he expresses 
himself strongly in favour of the polyphyletic origin of the 
Ratitse. In his remarks on a paper by Andrews published 
in this Journal (Ibis, 1896, p„ 1), the opinion of that author, 
