288 Recent Literature. [f^ y 



de celui de San Luis Potosi et le nord-est de Guanajuato, les forets de la 

 Huaxteca Potasina ont pris feu : l'incendie s'est propagee assez rapide- 

 ment, et les perroquets et autres oiseaux, fuyant devant elle, sont ar- 

 rives en bandes considerables, produisant partout les memes degats. 



J'ai pense que cette observation, toute accidentelle qu'elle est, pourrait 

 interesser l'Union des Ornithologistes qui s'occupe avec tant l'interet 

 de tout ce qui a rapport aux oiseaux. — p. Duges, Guanajuato, J\fex- 

 ico. 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Elliot's Wild Fowl of North America. — Mr. Elliot's 'Wild Fowl,' 

 as explained on the title page, 1 includes the Swans, Geese, Ducks, and 

 Mergansers of North America, and is uniform in style of publication and 

 method of treatment with his 'North American Shore Birds' and his 

 ' Gallinaceous Game Birds of North America,' published respectively in 

 1895 and 1S97, and reviewed at length in the pages of this journal (XIII, 

 1896, pp. 64-67, and XV, 1S9S, pp. 63-65). These three volumes, well 

 illustrated and tastefully printed, include practically all of the so-called 

 Game Birds of North America. They are designed as popular hand- 

 books, for the sportsman and general reader. An account of the habits 

 and haunts of each species is given under its English name; this is 

 followed, in smaller type, by its approved technical name, without synon- 

 ymy or bibliographical references, and a few paragraphs giving in plain 

 language a description of the bird in its various phases of plumage, and 

 its geographical distribution. 



In a preface of six pages the author makes a fervent protest against the 

 wholesale, indiscriminate and unceasing slaughter of these beautiful and 

 economically highly important species, which has been their fate till 



1 The I Wild Fowl | of the | United States | and | British Possessions | or 

 the I Swan, Geese, Ducks, and Mergansers | of ] North America | with 

 accounts of their habits, nesting, migra- | tions, and dispersions, together with 

 descrip- | tions of the adults and young, and keys for the ready identification 

 of the species | A book for the Sportsman, and for those desirous of 

 knowing how to | distinguish these web-footed birds and to learn | their ways 

 in their native wilds | By Daniel Giraud Elliot, F. R. S. E., etc. | .... [3 lines 

 of titles of the author's previous works, etc.] | With sixty-three plates. | New 

 York I Francis P. Harper [ 189S — Svo, pp. i-xxii +19-316, frontispiece and 

 63 half-tone plates. 



