^°'' ?.^n Recent Literature. 



1904 



295 



North American ornithology ; and unfortunately continued to do so, as 

 regards both classification and nomenclature, until the publication of the 

 present revised edition. It is therefore gratifying to find how closely this 

 new edition of a work that has done so much for the younger generation 

 of ornithologists accords in both these features with the latest edition of 

 the Check-List and its supplements down to the year 1S99. There are 

 discrepancies here and there between the two in the matter of higher 

 groups — as under the 'Order Picarise,' for example — and occasionally 

 in the recognition and designation of species and subspecies, but they are 

 surprisingly few, in view of the author's declared independence in matters 

 of expert opinion. (See Preface to the third edition, p. ix of the present 

 work.) Apparently very few forms recognized by the A. O. U. Com- 

 mittee prior to 1900 are here omitted, while many the Committee had 

 declined to recognize, or had not yet passed upon, are also admitted. A 

 large number of groups rated bj' the A. O. U. Committee, down to the 

 year 1900, as subgenera are given full generic rank, including not only 

 those thus raised by the Committee itself in 1903, but others, many of 

 which the Committee will doubtless soon accord the rank of genera. A 

 few subgenera additional to those of the A. O. U. Check-List are also rec- 

 ognized, of which four appear to be new, namely : Stellerocitta (p. 495), a 

 subgenitf of Cyanocitta for the Steller's Jay group; Sieberocitta (p. 499) 

 as a subgenus of Aphelocoma for. the Arizona Jay group; Dilopholieus 

 (p. 963) and Viguacarbo (p. 965) as subgenera of Phalacrocorax for, respec- 

 tively, the Double-crested Cormorant and the Mexican Cormorant. 



In respect to matters of nomenclature, and recent additions to the list 

 of North American birds, the new ' Key' has been brought down to date 

 through Mr. Farley's carefully prepared 'Appendix' (pp. 1145-1152), in 

 which he has given all the additions made in the Tenth, Eleventh, and 

 Twelfth Supplements to the Check-List (July, 1901-July, 1903), and 

 arranged, in parallel columns, all changes from the nomenclature of the 

 ' Key ' made bj' the A. O. U. Committee since Dr. Coues finished his 

 work on the inanuscript. 



The additions in the text of Part III, aside from those above noted, 

 consist in the amplification of many of the diagnoses ; many essential 

 modifications in the statement of ranges, in conformity with our increased 

 knowledge of such ir.atters ; the addition of bibliographical references, 

 and much critical and historical comment on questions of nomenclature 

 — matters almost wholly excluded from foimer editions; the addition of 

 many — perhaps too many — vernacular svnonyms ; and the more 

 elaborate and often greatly extended characterizations of the higher 

 groups. These are considered from the point of view of the birds of the 

 world, and the relationships of their different components are stated with 

 masterly clearness and comprehensiveness. In illustration of this the 

 ' Order Picarise ' may be especially cited, where (pp. 537-543) the group as 

 a whole and its subdivisions are considered at length. Although he 

 retains the group, he says: "I have no faith whatever in the integrity of 



