394 Recent Literature. aes 
filled with well-selected matter, and go far toward answering every impor- 
tant inquiry respecting the life-history of this notable species. —J. A. A. 
Nash’s ‘Check-List of the Birds of Ontario.’!— Mr. Nash’s briefly 
annotated list of the birds of Ontario numbers 302 species, and is based 
on the author’s personal knowledge, except where credit is given to other 
authority. It cannot fail to bea very useful and convenient summary of 
the ornithology of the Province, and is very neatly and correctly 
printed.—J. A. A. 
Macoun’s ‘ Catalogue of Canadian Birds.’*— The scope and character 
of Mr. Macoun’s ‘ Catalogue of Canadian Birds’ is thus succinctly stated 
in Dr. George M. Dawson’s prefatory note, namely: ‘‘It is intended to 
enumerate all of the birds of the Dominion systematically and to bring to- 
gether the principal known facts in regard to their distribution, migra- 
tions and breeding habits.” In the author’s preface he further states that 
the ‘Catalogue’ is to also include ‘‘ Newfoundland, Greenland and 
Alaska,” or the whole of North America north of the United States. 
‘The nomenclature and the numbers given in the latest edition and sup- 
plements of the Check-list published by the American Ornithologists’ 
Union have been made the basis of arrangement of the catalogue.” It 
would have been advisable to have also added a separate and consecutive 
series of numbers for the species of the ‘Catalogue.’ Part I includes 
Nos. 1 to 316 of the A. O. U. Check-List, and takes in rather more than 
four fifths of all the species. 
The first enumeration of the birds of this extensive region is that con- 
tained in the second volume of the ‘ Fauna Boreali-Americana’ of Swain- 
son and Richardson, published in 1831, which contained 267 species. 
In 1878 a second enumeration was made by Mr. Montague Chamberlain, 
restricted however to Canada, and thus excluding Alaska and Greenland, 
the number of species being 556. 
1Check List | of the | Birds of Ontario | and | Catalogue of Birds in the 
Biological Section | of the | Museum. | Department of Education | Toronto. | 
[By C. W. Nash.] Toronto: | Warwick Bro’s. & Rutter, Printers, Etc., 68 
and 70 Front St. West. | 1900. — 8vo, pp. 58. 
?Geological Survey of Canada. | George M. Dawson, C.M.G.,L. L. D., 
F. R. S., Director. | — | Catalogue | of | Canadian Birds. | — | Part I. | 
Water Birds, Gallinaceous Birds, | and Pigeons. | Including the following 
Orders : | Pygopodes, Longipennes, Tubinares, Steganopodes, | Anseres, Her- 
odiones, Paludicole, Limi- | cole, Galline, and Columbe. |—| By John 
Macoun, M. A., F. R. S. G., Naturalist to the Geological Survey of Canada. 
[Seal.] Ottawa: | Printed by S. E. Dawson, Printer to the Queen’s Most | 
Excellent Majesty, | 1900.—8vo, pp. viit218. Price ro cts. 
