SIBLEY: ORNITHOLOGY - 649 



Wetmore (1924-1945), and the clucks by Phillips (1922-1926). Murphy's two 

 volumes on the oceanic birds of South America (1936) include extensive mate- 

 rial on life history and behavior in addition to taxonomic and distributional data. 



The thick volume by Knowlton (1909) is the only attempt to date to provide 

 a survey of the habits, appearance, and distribution of the birds of the entire 

 world. All families are considered with attention given to significant species 

 in each. Newton's Dictionary of Birds (1893-1896) is an alphabetically ar- 

 ranged compendium of various phases of ornithology. 



In marked contrast to the enormous number of volumes dealing with faunal 

 or systematic groups is the paucity of works on avian biology. This situation 

 is partly due to the fact that systematics must precede studies of the living 

 animal and it is only recently that the classification of birds has attained the 

 necessary degree of completeness. A second factor is the relative novelty of the 

 basic concepts upon which interpretations of behavior, physiology, etc., are 

 founded. 



Among the first books which tried to bring together the information on bird 

 biology were those of Beebe (1906) and Pycraft (1910). In 1923, J. A. Thom- 

 son published his volume on bird biology, which included chapters on adapta- 

 tion, behavior, migration, and so forth. 



The major work on avian biology to date was written by the dean of world 

 ornithologists, Erwin Stresemann (b. 1889) and published (1927-1934) as a 

 volume of Kiikenthal and Krumbach's Handbuch der ZooJogie. This moniunental 

 book contains extensive discussions of anatomy, physiology, and other phases 

 of avian biology. Before Stresemann 's volume was completed, there appeared 

 the first parts of Franz Groebbel's (b. 1888) detailed treatment of avian anatomy 

 and biology (1932-1937). 



In 1950 a collaborative effort by a group of twelve French biologists under 

 the direction of Pierre Grasse produced a volume which, while variable in the 

 extent and quality of the treatment of its different sections, is the onh^ readily 

 available up-to-date compendium on the biology of birds. It contains chapters 

 on anatomy, physiology, genetics, behavior, embryology, ecology, etc., and a sys- 

 tematic synopsis of the birds of the world. 



Of importance to students of avian biology are such volumes as Friedmann's 

 studies on social parasitism in the cowbirds (1929) and the parasitic cuckoos of 

 Africa (1948), the compendium by Armstrong (1947) on bird behavior and N. 

 Tinbergen's recent (1951) book on instinct. The book on bird parasites by 

 Miriam Rothschild and Theresa Clay (1952) brings together for the first time 

 the large and scattered literature on this subject. 



Anyone familiar with the literature of ornithology will think of numerous 

 works, as important as some herein included, which have been omitted. The 

 attempt has been to select examples, not to survey the entire literature of the 

 past century. 



It has not been possible in this brief survey of ornithology during the past 

 century to cover all of the aspects of the subject. Omission of such important 

 phases of research as bird flight, avian genetics, ecology, endocrinology, and 

 other subjects is regretted. For the reader interested in further historical in- 



