° i9i5 ] Recent Literature. 121 



While these premises make criticism of the " system " to a great extent 

 impossible we nevertheless cannot agree with the principle. Such a 

 stand is absolutely opposed to the modern views of classification, and we 

 fail to see why we are better off in grouping together two species which 

 are superficially alike when we know that they have sprung from very 

 different stocks, and have converged through the action of similar 

 necessities of life or environment. Even the popular student would, we 

 think, prefer to know that a system reflected the actual phylogenetic rela- 

 tionship of the groups, even though he were unable to see similarities in a 

 cursory examination of the species. 



No linear arrangement such as is necessitated in a book can be truly 

 accurate phylogenetically or " systematically " but we see no need for two 

 arrangements and consider that the best " system " is a phylogenetic one. 



Apart from the nature of the " System " the uniting of a number of 

 families into several composite groups it seems to us serves no purpose, 

 especially when the larger groups are put in different primary divisions; as 

 the " Scansores " and " Insesores," of Dr. Reichenow's system. The 

 reduction in the number of families is on the same fine and we can see no 

 advantage in uniting the Phytolomidtc and Cotingidce; the Tyrannidce, 

 Pipridce and Oxyrhynchidce; or in the grand amalgamation of Timaliidce, 

 Wrens, Mockers, Thrushes and Old World Warblers under the family name 

 of Sylviidce! 



More misleading still is the disposition of some of the genera. The 

 removal of Vireosylva from the Virconidce to the Mniotiltidce is certainly 

 not due to any obvious external characters. And the appearance in the 

 latter family of the genera Rhodinocichla, Phoenicophilus, and Tachy- 

 phonus is hardly less unfortunate, especially in the case of Rhodinocichla 

 which Dr. Hubert Lyman Clarke has shown pretty conclusively to be 

 Tanagrine in its affinities. (Auk, 1913, p. 11.) 



While, as said before, we can see no reason for a system such as Dr. 

 Reichenow advocates, nevertheless if we adopt such a system, it would, 

 it seems to us, have been more consistent to have carried it further and 

 placed the swallows in the same group with the swifts, and to have recog- 

 nized several other obvious cases of external resemblance. 



However, no matter what system is adopted ' Die Vogel ' fills a long-felt 

 want in presenting the more important genera and species in a concise 

 manner under each family as well as furnishing in a convenient form a vast 

 amount of valuable information. It will thus take its place among the 

 standard works of reference on the birds of the world — a broad field truly, 

 but one which Dr. Reichenow is eminently fitted to cover. — W. S. 



Second Report on the Food of Birds of Scotland. — In 1912 Miss 

 Laura Florence published analyses of the contents of 616 stomachs of 

 Scottish birds. Now a report x has appeared upon the continuation of that 

 work. It includes analyses of 1390 stomachs representing 81 species. 



i Trans. Highland and Agr. Soc. Scotland. Fifth Series, Vol. XXVI, 1914, 

 pp. 1-74. 



