2Q2 Recefit Literature. LADril 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Coues's ' Key to North American Birds,' Fifth Edition.' — " The present 

 work constitutes the completion of Dr. Coues' life-long labors on behalf 



of the science of ornithology In preparing it for publication the 



publishers have suffered extraordinary expense, difficulty, and delay by 

 the loss of Dr. Coues' assistance in the proof-reading and illustrating of 

 the book. The manuscript was finished but shortly before his death, and 

 though fortunately complete in this form, was left in such shape as to 

 present almost insuperable difficulties to the compositor or proof-reader, 

 who lacked the author's direction and supervision " (Publisher's Preface, 

 p. iii). 



About four years elapsed between the death of Dr. Coues and the appear- 

 ance of the Fifth Edition of the ' Key.' Doubtless if Dr. Coues had lived 

 to see the work through the press, and it could thus have received his 

 final touches in the proof, it would not have been materially different from 

 what it is at present, but it must have undergone many slight modifica- 

 tions, and have been left fully abreast of the subject, instead of four years 

 behind, as now. The publishers, under the circumstances, were most for- 

 tunate in securing the services of Mr. J. A. Farley, to superintend the 

 carrying of the work through the press, and their acknowledgment of 

 their own and the reader's indebtedness to the "painstaking care,.... 

 scholarly zeal and conscientious spirit of fidelitv and accuracy " with 

 which he performed the task, is most certainly a deserved tribute to his 

 editorial skill and care. 



' Key I to I North American Birds. | Containing a concise account of every 

 species of Living and Fossil | Bird at present | known from the Continent 

 north of the Mexican and United States Boundary, inclusive of Greenland and 

 Lower California. | With which are incorporated | General Ornithology : | an 

 outline of the Structure and Classification of Birds; | and | Field Ornithology, 

 I a Manual of collecting, preparing, and preserving Birds. | The Fifth Edition, 

 I (entirely revised) | exhibiting the Nomenclature of the American Omitholo- 

 gists' Union, and including | descriptions of additional species. | In Two Vol- 

 umes. I Volume I. I By Elliott Coues, A. M., M. D., Ph. D., | Late Captain 

 and Assistant Surgeon U. S. Army and Secretary U. S. Geological Survey; 

 Vice-President of the American | Ornithologists' Union, and Chairman of the 

 Committee on the Classification and Nomenclature of North American Birds ; 

 I Foreign Member of the British Ornithologists' Union ; Corresponding Mem- 

 ber of the Zoological Society | of London ; Member of the National Academy 

 of Sciences, of the Faculty of the National | Medical College, of the Philo- 

 sophical and Biological Societies of Washington. | Profusely illustrated. | 

 [Vignette.] Boston: | Dana Estes and Company. | 1903. — Roy. 8vo, Vol. I, 

 pp. i-xli -f- 1-535, col. frontispiece, portrait of author, and text figs. 1-353; 

 Vol. II, pp. i-vi -)- 537-1152, col. frontispiece, and text figs. 354-747. 



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