coo Recent Literature- I Oct. 



the Field system is much too small, since it includes a conspicuously large 

 number not in either of the others. As regards the comparative utility 

 of these several bibliographies, it must be conceded that thus far the ' Con- 

 cilium Bibliographicum ' stands — in view of the explanatory annotations 

 on the Concilium cards, and the broader scope and relatively greater 

 completeness of this system, — in the first rank of modern zoological 

 bibliographies, and that it has earned, and should receive, sufficient sup- 

 port to guarantee its permanence. 



From the examinations made in this connectioii it is evident that the 

 ornithological literature for the year 1901 consists of not less than 1500 

 titles that are properly citable in bibliography; and, taking the four for- 

 mal bibliographies for that year collectively, probably nearly all have 

 been gathered in, but no one of them shows the degree of completeness 

 that should be attained. Doubtless perfection in a field so difficult to 

 entirely compass is beyond the possibility of attainment, owing to the 

 virtual impossibility of bringing together all of the widely scattered and 

 often obscurely published works and papers relating to the subject. 



The defective handling of Volume N, so far as its incompleteness is 

 concerned, is apparently not chargeable to any one of the Regional Bureaus, 

 since the defect is widely distributed, and apparently general. Neither is 

 it the fault of the system of the work, but to the carelessness of individ- 

 ual workers to whom the regional work has been assigned. The intended 

 scope of the work seems ample, judging by the character of the publi- 

 cations cited, but probably, in addition to much carelessness, a wide range 

 of individual judgment is exercised on the part of the original gatherers 

 of the material, as regards papers that are considered citable. Doubtless 

 we may safely hope that the character of the Catalogue will improve as 

 the work progresses, and especially as it is stated that "Any portion of 

 the literature of 1901 which may not have been dealt with in the first 

 annual issue will be included in the corresponding volumes of the second 

 annual issue of the Catalogue." 



The method of citing the place of publication of the individual papers 

 is so definite and satisfactory that no improvement can be suggested, but 

 some changes might be made that would greatly facilitate the use of the 

 Catalogue. The registration numbers and other arbitrary signs are doubt- 

 less indispensable, but it is too much to expect that the casual user of the 

 work can always carrj^ in mind their significance ; and even were this prac- 

 ticable some other page headings, in a volume of over a thousand pages, 

 than the sectional numbers, which mean nothing until the system has 

 been mastered, and the specialist has memorized those that relate to his 

 own field, would be of great convenience. The subject matter of each 

 page can easily be indicated in the page heading. Thus if, in Aves, instead 

 of simply the numbers 5803, 5807, 5815, etc., at the outer top corner of 

 the first seventy pages there were added Aves : Titles ; Aves : General 

 Works; Aves: Structure; Aves: Physiology, and so on, it would save 

 the user much time in turning these seventy pages to find some particular 



