Vol. XXII j Recent Literature. gj 



Patagonia, conducted by the late Dr. J. B. Hatcher, has made its appear- 

 ance under the joint authorship of Mr. W. E. D. Scott of Princeton and 

 Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe of the British Museum of Natural History, and 

 is thus likely to be well done and authoritative. The first part begins 

 with the systematic portion, without any introductory matter, which, 

 under separate pagination, will doubtless appear with the final part of 

 the work. The basis of the present volume is the ornithological collec- 

 tions made by Dr. Hatcher and his principal assistants, Mr. Peterson and 

 Mr. A. E. Colburn, incidentally to the main work of the Princeton Uni- 

 versity Patagonian Expeditions, which was to explore the geology and 

 rich deposits of animal remains in Patagonia. The scientific results of 

 these eminently successful expeditions will form twelve large quarto vol- 

 umes, abundantly illustrated with plates and text cuts, and will be pub- 

 lished at the expense of the J. Pierpont Morgan Fund. Several volumes 

 have already appeared, including the narrative volume, by Dr. Hatcher, 

 whose untimely death a few months ago is lamented as a most serious 

 loss to science. His wonderfully successful researches in Patagonia 

 were due to his indomitable perseverance, energy, and remarkable power 

 of endurance, under grave hardships and adverse conditions. As a 

 field explorer he had few equals, and he had also attained eminence as 

 an investigator which presaged long years of useful work when disease 

 suddenly cut short his career. In the narrative volume of the Expedi- 

 tions he recorded many observations on the birds of the region visited, 

 which we are glad to see are here utilized. 



Naturally the classification adopted is that propounded by Dr. Sharpe 

 and employed in his well-known ' Hand-List of the Genera and Species 

 of Birds.' The families treated in the present brochure include the 

 Rheida;, Tinamida?, Columbidae, Peristidae, Rallida;, Podicipedidre, and 

 Sphenicida;, and include 29 species, occupying 112 pages, with numer- 

 ous text cuts of heads, bills, feet, etc. Very full tables of bibliographi- 

 cal references are given, for the higher groups as well as the species, 

 with technical descriptions of the species, followed by a brief paragraph 

 giving the geographical range, and as much biographical matter as could 

 be conveniently gathered from preceding writers, including Darwin's 

 extended observations on many of the species included in the scope of 

 this work. Although its exact geographical limits are not here stated, it 

 is evidently intended to be a complete monograph of the ornithology of 

 Patagonia, including the Falkland Islands. Hence only a small propor- 

 tion of the species are represented in the collections made by the Prince- 

 ton University Expeditions — only one fourth of those covered by Part 

 I. In most cases, in fact, the descriptions are avowedly based on 

 material in the British Museum, to which Mr. Scott took the specimens 

 collected by the Princeton Expeditions for identification. The work has 

 thus authoritatively determined material for its basis, and through the 

 association of Dr. Sharpe in the authorship, such an authoritative stand- 

 ing that we may pardon even the use of emended names. — J. A. A. 



