560 Recently published Ornithological Works. 
part of SeebohnPs posthumous work on the Thrushes, now- 
being issued and completed under the editorship of Dr. 
Bowdler Sharpe :— Merula rufitorques, M. s err ana, M. leu- 
cops, M. infuscata, M. samoensis, M. mareensis, M. gigas, 
M. gig ant odes, M. cacozela, M. nigrescens, M. nigrorum, and 
M. nigropileus . Other unfigured species are introduced into 
the letterpress. We venture to think that the number of 
Neotropical Blackbirds has become somewhat unduly aug-' 
mented of late years. It is allowed that in some cases the 
males are nearly or quite indistinguishable, and that specific 
characters can be detected only in the females. But are 
the females of the same locality always exactly similar ? 
100. Shelley's ‘Birds of Africa,’ vol. ii. pt. 1. 
[The Birds of Africa. By G. E. Shelley, F.Z.S., F.R.G.S. Vol. II. 
Pt. 1. London: Porter, 1900. 8vo. Pp. 160. 6 coloured plates. Price 
21s. net.] 
Our valued friend and fellow-worker has commenced his 
laborious task of describing the 2534 birds of the Ethiopian 
Region, of which he catalogued the names in the first volume 
of this work (see Ibis, 1896, p. 419). The present portion 
of vol. ii. contains the Pittidae and Philepittidse, and the 
whole of the Nectariniidae—the last a very numerous group 
in Africa, comprising upwards of 80 species. These are all 
diagnosed and described, and every necessary particular is 
given concerning their distribution, nesting-habits, and other 
known peculiarities. 
The f Birds of Africa/ when complete, promises to be of 
first-rate importance to ornithological science. 
101. Suschkin on the Skull of Tinnunculus. 
[Zur Morphologie des Vogelskelets. I. Schadel von Tinnunculus. 
Von P. P. Suschkin. Nouv. M6m. Soc. Imp. d. Nat. Moscou, xvi. livr. 2 
(1899).] 
Dr. Suschkin requires 150 pages of quarto—distinctly 
verging upon folio—to state what he has to say about the 
development of the skull in Tinnunculus alaudarius. For 
those who are unable to read this extended memoir the 
