INTRODUCTION 37 



list, with references, of the Birds of the island is contained in the 

 Handbook of Jamaica for 1881 (jip. 103-117) ; while in 1885 Mr. Cory,i 

 who in 1880 had brought out, at Boston (ed. 2, 1890), a work on the 

 Birds of the Bahama Islands (not strictly Antillean), published a List of 

 the Birds of the West Indies, with a revised edition in the following year, 

 and one still more elaborate, so that the words " List of " were dropped 

 from the title, in 1889. 



So admirable a " List of Faunal Publications relating to North 

 American Ornithology" up to the year 1878 has been given by Dr. 

 Coues as an appendix to his Birds of the Colorado Valley (pp. 567-784) 

 that nothing more of the kind is wanted except to notice some of the 

 chief separate works which have since appeared, for so prolific are our 

 American relations that it would be impossible to mention many. 

 Among those that cannot be overlooked are Mr. Stearns's New England 

 Bird Life (2 vols. 8vo, 1881-83), revised by Dr. Coues, and the several 

 editions of his own Check List of North American Birds (1882), and Key 

 to North American Birds.^ Then there is the great North American Birds 

 of the late Prof. Baird, Dr. Brewer and Mr. Ridgway (1874-84), and the 

 Manual of North American Birds (1887 ; ed. 2, 1896) by the last of 

 these authors ; beside Capt. Bendire's Life Histories of North American 

 Birds (4to, Washington: 1892), beautifully illustrated by figures of their 

 eggs. Yet some of the older works are still of sufficient importance to 

 be especially recorded here, and especially that of Alexander Wilson, 

 whose American Ornithology, originally published between 1808 and 1814, 

 has gone through many editions, of which mention should be made of 

 those issued in Great Britain by Jameson (4 vols. 16mo, 1831), and 

 Jardine (3 vols. 8vo, 1832). The former of these has the entire text, 

 but no plates ; the latter reproduces the plates, but the text is in places 

 much condensed, though excellent notes are added. A continuation of 

 Wilson's work, under the same title and on the same plan, was issued by 

 Bonaparte between 1825 and 1833, and most of the later editions 

 include the work of both authors. The works of Audubon, with their 

 continuations by Cassin and Mr. Elliot, and the Fauna Boreali- Americana 



^ In the same year Mr. Cory also produced the Birds of Haiti and St. Domingo, 

 supplying a want that had been long felt, since nothing had really been known of 

 the ornithology of Hispaniola for nearly a century, Gundlach, Lembeye and 

 Poey are the chief authorities on that of Cuba, while the first has also treated of the 

 Birds of Porto Rico. 



2 The second and revised edition (the first having appeared in 1872, while a fifth 

 is now in preparation) of this useful work was published in 1884, and contains (pp. 

 234, 235) a classification of North-American Birds, though being limited to them will 

 not need detailed notice hereafter ; but I may remark that the author very justly 

 points out (p. 227) the dilference, overlooked by many writers of to-day, between 

 '' natural analysis " and the " artificial keys " now so much in vogue, the latter being 

 merely " an attempt to take the student by a ' short cut ' to the name and position in 

 the ornithological system of any specimen " he may wish to determine. Under the 

 title of Handbook of Field and General Ornitliology, the two portions of this work 

 most valuable to the non-American reader were republished in London in 1890, and 

 deserve to be far better known among the ornithologists of all countries than they 

 seem to be, for they give much excellent information not to be found elsewhere. 

 Many writers on Birds in newspapers and magazines would be often spared some 

 silly mistakes were they to make acquaintance with Dr. Coues's little book. 



