296 



Recent Literature. [ ^":j 



any such grouping as ' Picariae ' implies; but if I should break up this 

 conventional assemblage, I should not know what to do with the frag- 

 ments ;.... The A. O. U. ignores the major group, and presents instead 

 three orders — Coccvges, Pici, and Macrochires. With this procedure I 

 have no quarrel, as the three are precisely coincident with my three 

 suborders, Cuculiformes, Piciformes, and Cypseliformes." 



Part IV, ' Systematic Synopsis of the Fossil Birds of North America' 

 (pp. 1087-1097), brings this important feature of the work also down to 

 the close of the year 1899. An index of 48 pages, three columns to the 

 page, completes this -masterpiece of mature ornithological work, which 

 alone would long keep green the memory of its gifted author. 



In the way of criticism, we note with some surprise the fact that the 

 matter relating to the general anatomy of birds is left as published in 

 1884, notwithstanding the many important contributions to the subject 

 since that date. We cannot help feeling that if Dr. Coues had lived to 

 carry the new ' Key ' through the press this part of the work would also 

 have received due revision at his hands. In regard to the publishers' 

 share in the work, they have certainly been liberal in their expenditure 

 for illustrations, but unfortunately the paper selected for the work is 

 poorly adapted for the reproduction of half-tones in the text, and many of 

 Mr. Fuertes's beautiful drawings have suffered sadly in the printing. 

 Also, as already said, it is a decided inconvenience to have the 'Key' 

 issued as a two-volume work, and it is to be hoped that when the next 

 edition is called for it will be found practicable to use both a lighter- 

 weight and a smoother-finished paper, so as to give greater sharpness to 

 the half-tones and at the same time render it practicable to issue the work 

 in a single volume. If the two volume form should seem necessary, it 

 would be a great convenience to have the index inserted in both volumes. 



In regard to the ' Key ' itself, it is a well-known and an old favorite, 

 whose thirty years of practical usefulness have won for it unstinted and 

 well-merited praise, and in its new form will prove for many years to 

 come a boon alike to the amateur and the professional student of North 

 American birds. The ' Key ' of 1872 was an innovation and an experi- 

 ment in ornithological literature ; its practicability was evident from the 

 outset, and it proved to be the forerunner of almost numberless succes- 

 sors of 'key' manuals in various departments of zoology. The author's 

 final revison of this greatest of his many contributions to ornithological 

 literature will make a new generation of bird students his debtors and 

 admirers. — J. A. A. 



Chapman's 'Color Key to North American Birds.'' — The sole pur- 

 pose of the present book, according to the author, is "the identification of 



' Color Key to | North American Birds | By | Frank M. Chapman | Associ- 

 ate Curator of Ornithology and Mammalogy | in the American Museum of 



