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By the HON. W. KOTHSCHILD, Ph.D., and E. HARTERT, Ph.D. (Plates IX.-XI., XV.-XXVI.) I. INTRODUCTION.THE followiug pages embody the ornithologioal results of three visits to Algeria, dariug the years 1908, 1000, and 1911. In 1908 we left England on February 12, and on the morning of the following day reached Marseilles, on a cold and frosty morning, out of which a bright sun arose on an immaculate bine sky : e.xceedingly beautiful to ns, after weeks of dull, dark English winter days. Consequently our spirits were high when we steamed through tlie picturesque harbour and bay, in anticipation of a beautiful, line passage. Unfortunately onr hopes were not fulfilled, for during the night, near the Balearic Isles, we encountered a strong wind and heavy seas, and when we arrived off Algiers we had " had ipiite enough of it," and Algiers itself did not present the often-deserilied '' vue ravissanto " which it frequently offers, as it was more or less covered with clouds (Pi. XV., top).Fonr days we stayed at Algiers, enjoying beautiful weather, observing the usual birds inhabiting the gardens, the " Bois," and woods in the neighbourhood, catching a few /.ijqaeiia ahjira and moths, and getting shooting-licences, a (|uite ceremonious and tedious affair, but necessary in order to avoid troubles and to buy powder, which one cannot get for money unless one holds a licence.On the 19th we left for Biskra by the night train, reaching EI Guerrah in the morning. The sun was brilliant, and from the train we saw on the bare fields and meadows Plovers {Vanellns), White Storks, Ravens, Larks and innumerable Sparrows. Near tiie station called " Les Lacs " a wide expanse of flat water was seen, on it many ducks, a few gulls, and far away on the other side hundreds and liundreds of Flamingoes I At last Biskra was reached, where we found coml'ortable rooms in the Hotel Victoria (PI. XIX., toj)).We stayed in that now so well known tourists' oasis, with a tour to Batna and another to El Kantara in between, until tlie end of April, and obtained a splendid first knowledge of the ornis of the northern portion of the Algerian Sahara. Biskra is a most convenient place for that purpose. One can stay in more or less comfortable hotels, and can get carriages and horses to drive and ride, and the neighbourhood is very interesting. Within a day's excursion one can climb the wild and bare rocky hills forming, so to say, the northern lioundary of the real desert, can become acquainted with the ornis of the oasis of date-palms, or visit the plain of El Outaya with fields and gardens, or get a glimpse of the real desert, many dry clayey stretches, real sand-dunes near Oumash, stony desert close to the town and again immediately south of Bordj Saada, patches of sebcha or salt-desert, as well as the banks and beds of desert-streams, the Oued Biskra and Oued Djeddi, especially rich in migrants of many kinds. * The uume cantillans is earlier than mbalp'tna, aad rtfera to this Sijecies, not to the UartfoiU Waiblei'j us crrouuously suppofrcU by ilichiiiuiiU.

By the HON.W. ROTHSCHILD, Ph.D.I HAVE arranged my Arcikinae according to the Catalogue of the Lepidoplera Pkalacnae in the British Museum, vol. iii., this being tlie most recent work on the fiimily as a whole. I have, however, included the three genera Goiiotrephcs, A/tta.ria, and -Xeozatrephes, placed by Sir George Hampson among the Si/ntomiilae, because I consider these genera, in spite of the absence of the costal vein of the hindwing, more nearly allied to the Arctianae than to the Si/nlomidae. Considering the great use and imiwrtance to lepidopterists of the British Museum Catalogue, it is to be regretted that not sufficient distinction has been empiuisised between Subspecies and Aberrations. In several instances Sir George Hampson has cdrrectly separated the subspecies, but in by far the larger number of cases he has united them indiscriminately under the term " aberration." It cannot be too often reiterated that a Subspecies is a local race or geographical representative of a given species, in which the variation from the " type " is more or less uniform and constant : on the other hand, an Aberration is a sporadic or individual variation occurring among the typical individuals, and in which, even if several specimens occur, the variation from the type is rarely if ever uniform and not persistent. A difference from the type, liowever small, if confined to one locality and to the bulk of or the whole of the individuals from that locality, is sufficient to separate this group of individnals as a subspecies ; but, be the difference ever so great, if it is pnrely individual, not confined to any one locality, and occurs casually with the typical form, it can (inly be considered an aberration, and, in my opinion, should not be named. Subspecies, on the other hand, should be named trinomially, thus : Arctia caja americana. I have, in the body of this catalogue, given the localities, in many cases, in an abbreviated form, in order to save time and space. I here enumerate the ( 3 ) Wiikenaaiu Island, British Guiana.

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