^"Jgg^"] Recent Uferafurc. 6q 



'Birds About Us" is illustrated bv 24 half-tone plates, partly reproduc- 

 tions from Audubon and Wilson and partly from mounted groups in the 

 collection of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences — for which bv the 

 way the author makes no acknowledgment whatever. There are also a 

 number of woodcuts, generally copied from Wilson, and for the most 

 part so rough as to spoil the appearance of an otherwise handsome piece 

 of typographical work. — W. S. 



Chapmans List of the Birds of the Vicinity of New York City.' 

 — Masquerading as a museum guide, a local list of such excellence has 

 been laid before the public that its most obvious shortcomings are the 

 result of an endeavor to please, at the same lime, two classes of readers, 

 the museum visitor and the ornithologist. As a consequence it leaves 

 much to be desired by both ; one has a dictionary of information thrust 

 upon him instead of a primer, and the other growls at the superfluous 

 illustrations and the references to alcoves and cases. The pamphlet 

 consists of three parts, a brief introduction, an annotated list, and a short 

 bibliography. The reviewer is placed at a great disadvantage for he is 

 obliged to assume a dual role- As a visitor he finds the guide confusingly 

 replete with scientific information. In the introduction the birds are 

 nicely fitted into groups of " permanent residents," " summer visitants," 

 etc., but there is no hint that the same species may equally well belong to 

 several of these groups; and when he looks further into the list he finds 

 " migrants," " fall migrants," and " spring migrants," — groups to which 

 apparently no reference has been made. Any one of ordinary intelligence 

 will discover that these terms are synonymous with "regular transient 

 visitants," but in a guide nothing should be taken for granted. 



From an ornithologist's standpoint the list is most acceptable, and 

 acquires a particular interest from the fact that it is the first complete 

 list of the birds of the vicinity of New York City that has appeared since 

 that of Mr. Geo. N. Lawrence in 1866. It therefore deserves careful 

 scrutiny and comparison with this list rather than with others of more 

 limited scope. Mr. Lawrence's 327 species have been increased to 348 by 

 Mr. Chapman. Introduced and extinct species are not numbered as 

 part of the list, but incongruously appear in the same type used for it- 

 Besides, such species as Camptolaimus labradorius and Tympanuchui 

 americanus ought to have been treated alike. Aside from mere synonyms, 

 Mr. Chapman omits without comment the following birds given by 

 Mr. Lawrence, viz.: " Tiirdus [ = Hesperoctchla'\ ncevius,'' " Pujinus 



' Visitor's Guide to the Local Collection of Birds in the American Museum 

 of Natural History, New York City. With an Annotated List of the Birds 

 known to occur within fifty miles of New York City. By Frank M. Chapman, 

 .\ssistant Curator Department of Mammalogy and Ornithology. New York : 

 Printed for the Museum. 1S94. 8vo., pp. i-ioo, with pll. iv and cuts in text. 



