1915 J Recent Literature. Z\.o 



It was voted to prepare the present index at the meeting of the A. 0. U. 

 held in Cambridge, in November, 1912. Dr. T. S. Palmer was appointed 

 chairman with power to select the members of the Index Committee. 

 " A few weeks later," as stated in the introduction, " a committee of 13 

 members was organized,, with Professor W. W. Cooke as secretary, and at a 

 meeting on February 7, 1913, plans were perfected and the work distrib- 

 uted." The aid of Dr. Dwight, Chairman of the original Index Committee, 

 and of Dr. Richmond and Dr. Stone, editor of ' The Auk,' was secured in 

 correcting the proof. The Committee eventually comprised 22 members, 

 divided into three subcommittees, to each of which were assigned special 

 features of the work. To Professor Cooke, the secretary of the committee, 

 fell the work of preparing the copy for the press. The manuscript was in 

 the hands of the editor in April, 1914, but through delays in printing and 

 proofreading the issue of the work was delayed till early in 1915. The 

 Index Committee has thus made a good record for promptness and effi- 

 ciency in its difficult task. — J. A. A. 



The New B. O. U. List. 1 — After a lapse of thirty-two years we have a 

 second edition of the official list of British birds. It is well conceived, 

 well carried out in detail and well printed. Full headings to all higher 

 groups are given as in the A. O. U. Check-List, which is an improvement 

 over the recent ' Hand-List ' of Dr. Hartert and his associates. In the 

 case of generic headings the reference and type are always given while the 

 etymology and origin of all scientific names are explained. The synonymy 

 under each species consists of references to the original place of publication, 

 the first edition of the B. O. U. List, the ' Catalogue of Birds of the British 

 Museum ', and Saunders' 'Manual' 2nd edition; or in the case of recent 

 additions to the first record of the bird in the British Isles. There is then a 

 paragraph on ' Distribution in the British Islands ' and ' General Distribu- 

 tion.' The data on Migration are not so full as in the ' Hand-List ' nor 

 are they given a separate paragraph. When subspecies are recognized the 

 so called typical race is given binomially without the duplication of the 

 specific name and the trinomials are printed in smaller type, following 

 exactly the style of the original A. O. U. Check-List, a much less consistent 

 plan than that of the last edition of this work or of the British ' Hand-List.' 



In the introduction, beside the rules which governed the Committee's 

 labors there is a ' Summary of British Birds according to their Status,' in 

 which there are listed 141 Residents, 47 Summer Visitors, 46 Winter Visitors, 

 30 Birds of Passage, 61 Occasional Visitors, 149 Rare Visitors and 1 Extinct 

 Species; total 475, an increase of 99 over the first edition. There are three 

 appendices; (1), a hypothetical list; (2) , a list of " nomina conservanda " ; and 



1 A List | of | British Birds | Compiled by a Committee | of the | British Orni- 

 thologists' Union | vignette | Second and Revised Edition | Published by the | 

 British Ornithologists' Union | and sold by | William Wesly & Son, 28 Essex Street, 

 Strand, | London, W C. | 1915. 8vo, pp. i-xxii + 1-430. Price, 7s. 6d. 



