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Recent Literature. I April 



for instance about their development, pigmentation, their coloration, and 

 especially their structure in its relation to color. In regard to their nature 

 and development we have only the absolutely erroneous statement CVol. 

 Ill, p. 290) that feathers correspond "in essential structure to hairs," and 

 that they are "similarly developed," etc., which is also untrue. There is 

 also looseness of statement (p. 299) regarding the barbules and hooklets, 

 due perhaps to excessive effort at condensation of treatment, while the 

 case is a little overdrawn (p. 291) in the statement that " it is impossible 

 to kill a winged bird by compressing its windpipe." We regret also to 

 see the Gatkean ideas introduced under the head of ' Migration ' (p. 302), 

 to the effect that "the configuration of continents and oceans" must be 

 invisible to migrating birds, even in the daytime, owing to the great height 

 at which they travel. 



The classification followed is essentially that propounded some fifteen 

 years ago by Dr. Sclater, on the ground that, owing to the present diver- 

 sity of views on the subject, it is probably as good as any for a popular 

 work like the present, — a statement we have no desire to controvert. In 

 regard to the Passeres, the arrangement of Dr. Sharpe is adopted, which 

 places the Corvida? at the head, — an arrangement which at present seems 

 to meet with wide approval. 



It is of course easy to find fault with a popular work of this general 

 character, however good it may be or however conscientiously prepared. 

 Yet we may perhaps be pardoned for pointing to a few errors of state- 

 ment or omission that would hardly be anticipated in the present connec- 

 tion. Thus (p. 309) the reference to Xantkura fails to indicate that this 

 brilliant genus of tropical American Jays is remarkable for its yellow and 

 green colors rather than for its blue and black markings. In speaking of 

 the Siberian Jay {Perisoreus infaustus) as " a characteristic bird of the most 

 northern parts of the Old World," it seems strange no reference is made 

 to the fact that the genus Perisoreus is even more characteristic (as 

 regards number of species) of the northern parts of North America. 

 Again from the account of the Crossbills, one might infer that all were 

 so closely related as to be probably referable to one species, no reference 

 being made to the group with white wing-bars. In referring to the dis- 

 tribution of the Pipits (p. 432), the omission to note the occurrence of a 

 considerable number of species in South America, taken with the refer- 

 ence to North America, leads to the inference that they are absent from 

 that continent. 



In speaking of the Baltimore Oriole (p. 357) there is either a bad jum- 

 ble of the text of the two paragraphs headed respectively 'Cassiques' and 

 ' The True Ilangnests,' or else a most unpardonable lapse, for the Balti- 

 more does not "build in large companies," nor have as many as forty 

 nests on a single tree, nor breed in November, but these statements might 

 well apply to some of the South American Cassiques. In the next para- 

 graph we have the erroneous statement that the Bobolink " winters in 

 Central America and the West Indies," whereas it merely passes through 



