Recently published Ornithological Works. 131 



friend and correspondent Dr. Coues. They commence with 

 a biography of Audubon, the date of whose birth, strange to 

 say, has never been ascertained. But he is believed to have 

 been born in 1780, and at any rate he died on January the 

 27th, 1851, over 70 years of age. We will not go into the 

 events of his life, the history of which is given here^ with 

 many interesting particulars, by his grandchild, and Will, we 

 are sure, be read with great interest by all ornithologists. 

 The remainder of the present work is taken up with 

 Audubon's Journals — those kept in Europe 1826-29, in 

 Labrador in 1833, and on the Missouri in 1843. These, also, 

 although they are of course rather antiquated, contain much 

 useful matter. The second volume concludes with what are 

 called " The Episodes," which are essays introduced in the 

 first three volumes of the ' Ornithological Biography,' but not 

 reprinted in the octavo edition of the ' Birds of America.' 

 The volumes are well printed and nicely illustrated, and 

 deserve a prominent place in the library of every lover of 

 bird -lore. 



5. 'The Auk.' 



[The Auk. A Quarterly Journal of Ornithology. Vol. xv. Nos. 3, 4, 

 July and October 1898.] 



No. 3 opens with a coloured plate and full description 

 of the Imperial Ivory-billed Woodpecker {Campephilas im- 

 perialis), by Mr. E. W. Nelson, who had the good fortune 

 to meet with examples of this large and handsome species 

 in Mexico, as far south as Michoacan. Mr. R. Ridgway 

 contributes the first paper of "a, series intended for the 

 publication of supposed new forms in advance of the larger 

 work on the Birds of North and Middle America, upon 

 which the author has been engaged for the past four 

 years, the publication of which must necessarily be long 

 delayed," and of these (Fringillidae) he gives brief diagnoses 

 of 14 genera and 6 species or subspecies. It is unnecessary 

 to copy a mere list of their names, while to do more would 

 involve a full abstract of the whole article. Mr. Joseph 

 Mailliard found Oceanodroma furcata nesting in the same 



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