Q2 Recent Literature. \j^^ 



tion" by Mr. Grinnell. A couple of pages descriptive of the limits and 

 physical characteristics of the region, with a list of the trees, is followed by 

 an annotated list of 43 species of birds and a ' summary ' of the principal 

 points relating to their distribution. The list shows a mixture, at least in 

 winter, of humid coast forms and arid Sierran forms, the Siskij'ou Moun- 

 tains being "evidently on the narrow line of mergence between the 

 humid coast fauna and the arid Sierran fauna." — J. A. A. 



Sharpe's ' Hand List of the Genera and Species of Birds." — Volume IV. 

 — Volume IV ' continues the list of the Passeriformes, and includes the 

 families Timeliidie (with six subfamilies), Troglodytidie, Cinclidie, Mim- 

 id?e, Turdidae (with nine subfamilies), Sylviidse, Vireonidce, Ampelidse^ 

 Artamidae, Vangidje, Prionopid;e, Aerocharidae (with a single species), 

 Laniidae, Paridae, Chamaeidae, Regulidae, Sittidae, and Certhiidse. A fifth 

 volume has been found necessary to complete the work, and its publication 

 is promised in the course of a few months. 



The present volume is fully up to the high standard of its predecessors, 

 being in every sense fully up-to-date. As in previous volumes, the proof- 

 sheets have been revised by a considerable number of the leading orni- 

 thologists of Europe and America, and the author makes numerous 

 acknowledgments of indebtedness for suggestions thus received. 



As regards American birds, it may be noted that Anorthura is retained 

 for the Winter Wrens, since "the only bird in Rennie's mind [when he 

 proposed the genus] was certainly the European Wren." "The arrangement 

 of the Turdinae, as here set forth, is founded on the scheme proposed by 

 Dr. Stejneger in 1883, with certain changes and modifications.... The 

 arrangement of the true Turdidae into Thrushes ( Turdus) and Blackbirds 

 {Merula) breaks down on close examination ; but a more prolonged study is 

 necessary before an arrangement, satisfactory to all ornithologists, can be 

 arrived at. . . . The distinctive characters between the genera Turdus and 

 Mertila are very slight, and the difference in colour of the sexes in the lat- 

 ter genus is of no account. The proportion of the primary-quills empha- 

 sized by Dr. Stejneger is also an unstable character," etc. Just what is 

 the basis of Dr. Sharpe's present arrangement is not quite clear, nor are 

 the reasons for some of the new associations and dissociations at all 

 evident. Between Turdus and Merula are interposed nearly a dozen other 



• A Hand- List | of the | Genera and Species | of Birds. | [Nomenclator 

 Avium tum Fossilium | tum Viventium.] | By | R. Bowdler Sharpe, LL.l)., | 

 Assistant Keeper, Department of Zoology, | British Museum. | Volume IV. | 

 London: | Printed by Order of the Trustees. | Sold by | Longmans & Co., 39 

 Paternoster Row, E. C; | B. Quaritch, 15 Piccadilly, W. ; Dulau & Co., 37 

 Soho Square, W.; | Kegan Paul & Co., 43 Gerrard St., W.; | and at the | Brit- 

 ish Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, S.W. | 1903. | All rights 

 reserved. — 8vo. pp. i-xii, 1-39 1. 



