A.'J 4- Recent Literature. [October 



The classification presents a few innovations as regards the relative 

 rank and limitations of certain of the higher groups, where a few new 

 names are introduced, and a few changes are made in the nomenclature 

 of genera and species. The class Aves is divided into four subclasses, as 

 already indicated, three of them consisting entirely of extinct types, 

 w^hile the fourth (Eurhipidur?e) includes all the living representatives of 

 the class and their more closely allied extinct forms. This latter sub- 

 class is divided into three 'super-orders' and eighteen 'orders.' The 

 work begins with the 'lower' or more generalized forms, as the Archjcop- 

 teryx and Toothed Birds, and closes with the Passeres. It is illustrated 

 with 25 full-page plates and 273 cuts in the text, not a few of the latter 

 being anatomical. 



Lack of space forbids a detailed review, quotations, or extended criti- 

 cism. 



In the matter of editorship, we may remark that the passage from one 

 group to another is often obscurely indicated, which a more formal use 

 of subheadings would have obviated. While the names of the authors 

 are given on a leaf preceding the title page, there is nothing there or else- 

 where to indicate the share of each author's work, except the signatures 

 to the articles, the discovery of which entails a laborious search, as they 

 seem to be inserted on no easily discoverable system. The index, occupy- 

 ing only eight pages, could easily have been considerable extended with 

 profitable results to the reader. On the whole, however, the defects are 

 slight, while the excellences are manifold, and the general plan and 

 execution are admirable. To the general reader the work must long 

 prove a boon, and to the specialist will be hardly less valuable. — J. A. A. 



Brewster on 'Bird Migration.' — Mr. Brewster's important memoir* of 

 22 pages, forming No. I of the ' Memoirs of the Nuttall Ornithologi- 

 cal Club,' consists of two papers relating to the subject of bird migra- 

 tion. The first (read at the last meeting of the American Ornithologists' 

 Union, and here first published) is a detailed account of the author's ob- 

 servations made at the Point Lepreaux Lighthouse, where he spent the 

 interval from Aug. 13 till Sept. 26, 1S85, for the purpose of studying the 

 movements of the birds on their autumnal journey southward. The 

 locality and other circumstances proved exceedingly favorable for observ- 

 ing the behavior of birds under the fascination of a powerful light, and 

 their manner of 'striking' these fatally alluring objects is well detailed, 

 the narrative adding mucii to our knowledge of a matter previously 

 little understood. The second part of the memoir deals with the general 



* Memoirs of the Nuttall Ornithological Club. | — | No. I. | — | Bird Migration. | 

 By William Brewster. | Contributed by courtesy of tlie American Ornithologists' 

 Union's Committee on the | Migration and Geographical Distribution of North 

 American Birds. | Part I.- — Observations on Nocturnal Bird Flights at | the Light- 

 house at Point Lepreaux, Bay of | Fundy, New Brunswick. ] Part U. — Facts and 

 Theories respecting the general | subject of Bird Migration. | — | Cambridge, Mass. | 

 Published by the Club. | March, 1886. Imp. 8vo, pp. 22. 



