368 Recently published Oniitholoylcal Works. 



tliologist has yet been able to answer satisfactorily the ques- 

 tions as to the sex which utters the well-known note, as to 

 the time of moulting of the young Cuckoo, and as to the way 

 in which the Cuckoo arrives at a knowledge of the time when 

 she must place her egg in the nest selected for her purpose. 



63. K'mysleifs ' Standard Natural History.' 



[_' Tlie Standard Natural History,' edited by John Sterling Kingsley. 

 Vol. iv. Birds. Boston : S.E. Cassino and Co., 1885.] 



Those who wish to make themselves acquainted with the 

 most "^ advanced " views on the classification of birds should 

 devote their attention to the fourth volume of Kingsley's 

 ' Standard Natural History.' The ' Natural History of 

 Birds' is stated to have been prepared by "Walter B. 

 Barrows, Daniel G. Elliot, Leonard Stejneger, Ph.D., and 

 J. S. Kingsley, D.Sc." But it will not be difficult for any 

 one acquainted with the writings of modern ornithologists to 

 see at a glance which of these four gentlemen has had the 

 greater share in its preparation, and under whose guidance 

 the whole has been shaped into its present form. It 

 would have been much better to have added to the " con- 

 tents " the name of the author of each division, which can 

 only be ascertained by a hunt for the signature that is 

 attached to each succeeding portion. There, however, can 

 be no question that the volume, as a whole, may be attributed 

 to Dr. Stejneger, and great credit is due to him for its pre- 

 paration. No work issued in Europe contains such a good 

 general account of the Class of Birds according to the most 

 recent researches of naturalists, and brings one into ac- 

 quaintance with the newest discoveries in this group of 

 vertebrates. In making a few critical remarks, as we turn 

 over its pages, we are influenced by the hope that these 

 points will receive attention in the preparation of the second 

 edition of the ' Standard Natural History of Birds/ which 

 which will assuredly be called for. 



The authors commence at the lower end of the series of 

 birds, and treat first of the " Saururse," " Odontormse," and 

 " Odontohok'jc," as these three extinct subclasses arc dc- 



