92 Recent Literature. \j&n 



be reversed," on the basis of his experiments with domestic pigeons. Mr. 

 Beebe found that in placing his Inca Doves (Scardafella inca) in an arti- 

 ficially produced tropical atmospheric environment, the same individual 

 passed through, by successive moults, several color phases closely resem- 

 bling tropical forms of the genus Scardafella. Assuming, as it is safe to do, 

 that the genus Scardafella is of tropical origin, the characters thus acquired 

 are seemingly atavistic, and that "this humidity induced variation is 

 neither fortuitous nor directionless." These interesting and significant 

 results open up, says the author, "innumerable new vistas of unexplored 

 fields," which we trust he will be able to unfold to us through further 

 experiments with these and other species. 



The bearing of all this upon natural selection and ontogenetic species 

 is discussed at some length. Respecting the latter, he considers it would 

 be unreasonable to discard, as has been proposed, species and subspecies 

 "which are ontogenetically interchangeable under experimentation or in 

 a new environment," should such be found. This valuable and suggestive 

 paper closes with a bibliography of the works referred to or directly bearing 

 on the general subject, which we would hold up as an example of 'how 

 not to do it'; not in personal criticism of Mr. Beebe, but of a method all 

 too common in this day of bibliographies, where a thesis or a memoir is 

 counted incomplete unless the author supplies a list of the papers known to 

 him as bearing upon the subject in hand. In many, many instances we 

 find an author cited, so to speak, in general terms, — so vaguely that one 

 is merely guided to the volume, or to the number of a periodical, if he 

 wishes to consult the paper or passage cited, and must hunt out for himself, 

 as best he can. its exact place, at the loss of more or less time and the cost 

 of more or less needless vexation at the author who through slovenliness 

 or indolence is the cause of his trouble. 



To cite, in illustration, Mr. Beebe's present attempt at a bibliography: 

 "Faxon, Walter. 1886. Another Black Robin. The Auk, vol. iii." 

 "GfTNTHER, A. 1886. Note on the Melanotic Variety of the South 

 African Leopard. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1886." 



"Humboldt, Alexander von. 1808. Ansichten der Natur." 

 " Ogilvie-Grant, W. R. 1897. A Hand-book to the Game-birds. 

 Vol. ii." 



And so on, ad infinitum,, in this and nuinberless other modern bibliog- 

 raphies. If a work or paper is worth citing, it should be cited so that the 

 pertinent passages can be found without exasperating loss of time. If 

 one is curious to know what Hmiiboldt had to say in relation to humidity 

 and coloration, or whatever it is that may be referred to, where, under 

 such guidance, are we to find it in a work consisting of several volumes? 

 Or if we wish to know about Mr. Faxon's black robin, or Dr. Gtinther 

 black variety of the leopard, why should we be compelled to hunt in the 

 indexes under either the name of the author or the animal, or both, to find 

 the information wanted, when the compiler of the bibliography could 

 have given us the page reference with no additional trouble to himself? 



