14<S REPORT OF NATIONAL MU.SEUM, 1S93. 



passed private collection to the Sniitlisoniau Institution in 1884, lias 

 devoted bis entire time to the development of the national collection 

 and the i)iei)aration of the treatise upon the eg,iis and nesting habits 

 of North American birds, for which the Institution has been collecting 

 material for nearly fifty years. 



Maj. Bendire has continued the preparation of his work on the Life 

 Histories <»f North American Birds, and the text for another volume, 

 which will include the Cuckoos, the Woodpeckers, the Goat-suckers 

 and Swifts, the Humming Birds, the Flycatchers, the Horned Larks, 

 the Crows, Jays, Magpies, Blackbirds, and Orioles, is well in progress, 

 and the illustrations are being prepared under his direction by Mr. 

 John L. Ridgway. 



The first volume of this work has been received with much favor, 

 and it is gratifying that American work in illustration should receive 

 such hearty commendation from European authorities as have the 

 colored plates accompanying this Bulletin. 



Dr. Blasius, in the ""Rundschau," February 4, 181)3, says: 



The chroinolithot^raphs are perfect. The shading is so perfect, especially near 

 the outlines of the eggs, which appear to be resting upon a light-gray surface, that 

 one imagines himself to be looking at the original eggs. lam not acquainted with 

 any work in English, German, or any other language, that has presented pictures 

 of eggs approaching these in execution. One can not but express the highest regard 

 for a scientific establishment like the Smithsonian Institution which produces so 

 excellently executed a book, and we can but wish and hope that the entire work 

 may be completed, so that we may have as comprehensive a treatise on North Amer- 

 ican oology as we have of its ornithology in Baird, Ridgway, and Brewer's History 

 of North American Birds, published m 1874. 



Dr. Hermann Schalow, of Berlin, in the "Ornithologische Monats- 

 berichte," January, 1803, wrote: 



The original water-color drawings were made from nature l)y John L. Ridgway, 

 and are reproduced in lithography in a most admirable fashion. The plates far sur- 

 pass the best with which we are familiar. 



Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, of the British Museum, in •' Nature," Novem- 

 ber 2, 1893, wrote: 



The figures are beautifully rendered by chromolithography, and the publication 

 is altogether a notable one. The letterpress is the work of Capt. Charles Beudire, 

 wh<) IS known to be one of the most practiced oologists of the present day. He has 

 described and figured in the present volume the eggs of all the North American game- 

 birds, i)igeons, and birds of prey, and he has used his opportunity to the greate^'^t 

 advantagt! by giving an excellent account of the life-histories of the species, together 

 with the latest inlormation respecting their geographical distribution. Capt. Ben- 

 dire's work forms one of the most important of the recent contributions to ornitho- 

 logical knowledge, and the succeeding volumes will be awaited with interest by 

 ornithologLsts. 



Special allusion sliould be made to the very important cooperation 

 of Dr. William L. Ralph, of Utica, N. Y. Dr. Ralph has for twenty 

 years been forming a collection of the eggs and nests of North American 

 birds, very complete for the entire continent, though esi>ecially rich in 

 southern and extremely northern forms. This collection, which is one 



