551 Recently published Ornithological Works. 
which was in favour of a relationship of Phororhacos to the 
Cariamidse, is completely misstated. 
As to the exact age of the deposits in which the Stere- 
ornithes are found, Mercerat states that he considers it to 
he somewhere between the Upper Eocene and Middle Mio¬ 
cene, a much more reasonable view than is held bv some 
South-American writers. 
87. The Norwegian North Polar Expedition. 
[The Norwegian North Polar Expedition, 1893-1896.—Pt. IV. An 
Account of the Birds. By Robert Collett and Fridtjof Nansen. 4to.] 
The first section of this small (54 pp.) but important work 
treats of the journey of the f Frara’ along the coast of 
Siberia, from July 29th until the closing-in of the ship to the 
north-west of the New Siberian Islands on September 25th, 
1893. The birds observed were then chiefly on their way 
southward. The second section contains the observations 
made while the f Fram’ was drifting with the ice towards 
the north-w 7 est during the summer of 1894 and up to the 
time when Nansen and Johansen started on their daring 
sledge-journey on March 14th, 1895. It was in August 
1894 that specimens of Ross’s Wedge-tailed Gull ( Rhodo - 
stethia rosea) were obtained—birds only just old enough to 
fly—and the descriptions of flight, habits, and plumage of 
this interesting species, supplemented by the coloured plate 
of “ the youngest on record,” are an attractive feature of the 
book. The species is, of course, mentioned again in the third 
section (Nansen and Johansen’s sledge-journey) in reference 
to the obvious proximity of its breeding-place somewhere 
on the north-east side of Franz Josef Land ; but no examples 
were obtained at that time, for powder and shot were far 
too valuable for procuring food to be expended on such small 
objects. The fourth section is devoted to the birds observed 
during the last two summers (1895-96) that the f Fram’ 
passed in the ice, when Fulmarus glacialis was seen on 
September 14th in lat. 85° N., “ the highest latitude in which 
birds have ever been known to be observed.” This is a most 
interesting contribution, from beginning to end. 
