and forthcoming Bird-Books. 179 



volume^, we find announced as ready the first two volumes of 

 Professor Baird's long-promised ' History of North-American 

 Birds/ in which he has been assisted by Dr. Thomas M. 

 Brewer and Mr. Robert Ridgway. "The object ^^ of this 

 work, we are informed, is " to give a complete account of the 

 birds of the whole of North America, north of Mexico, ar- 

 ranged according to the most approved system of modern 

 classification, and with descriptions which, while embodying 

 whatever is necessary to the proper definition of the species 

 and their varieties in as simple a language as possible, ex- 

 clude all unnecessary technicalities and irrelevant matter. 

 On this account it is especially recommended to the beginner. 

 The descriptions are all prefaced by analytical and synoptical 

 tables, intended to diminish as much as possible the labour 

 of identification. 



" The illustrations consist, first of a series of outlines ex- 

 hibiting the peculiarities of the wing, tail, bill, and feet of 

 each genus ; but as these diagrams, however serviceable to 

 the ornithologist, necessarily fail to give any idea of the form 

 of the bird, they are supplemented by a second series, in- 

 cluding a full-length figure of one species of each genus. In 

 addition to the above a series of plates is furnished, contain- 

 one or more figures of the head, in most cases of life-size, of 

 every species of North- American bird, including the difierent 

 sexes, ages, and seasons, where these are necessary for the 

 proper illustration of the subject.^' 



There can be no doubt that such works as these and Dr. 

 Coues^s ' Key ' will render great facilities to future students 

 of the American ornis. 



We now arrive at the sixth and last great ornithological 

 region of the world, the Neotropical. Here, as many of our 

 readers are aware, Mr. Salvin and I have been long at work, 

 in hopes of some day being able to accomplish a task which 

 I proposed to myself some years ago, the preparation of an 

 ' Index Avium Americanarum,' something after the fashion of 

 the best part of Bonaparte's ' Conspectus.' We have got so 

 far as to have monographed many of the least-known and 

 * Seo Ibis, 1873, p. 442. 



