64 



Recent Literature. [January 



the last five years. To Mr. Scott B. Wilson, who spent eighteen months 

 on the islands in order to studj their ornithology, much credit is due for 

 this increase, and it is with great pleasure that we extend our welcome to 

 the work which he is now publishing, and we wish specially to call the 

 attention of our American ornithologists to it, as from the situation of the 

 Hawaiian Archipelago in relation to our own continent we ought to take 

 more interest in its avifauna than has been done hitherto. 



The work is uniform in appearance with most of the more ambitious 

 ornithological monographs which have been published in, England of late 

 years, and is issued in five parts, two of which have already been pub- 

 lished. These two parts treat of i8 species, and are accompanied by 20 

 plates, some of them representing species now extinct or nearly so. The 

 second part contains a very valuable and interesting treatise by Dr. Hans 

 Gadow 'On the Structure of Certain Hawaiian Birds with Reference to 

 their Systematic Position,' to the illustration of which three of the plates 

 are devoted. Many unexpected conclusions are the result of his investi- 

 gation, and the ornithological public is under great obligations to Mr. 

 Scott Wilson for not having spared any expense in order to have this side 

 of the ornithology of the group as well taken care of as that devoted to 

 the outside of the birds alone. For details and information we refer the 

 reader to the book itself, and we advise all who can afford it to subscribe 

 for it. The author has had heavy expenses in order to bring it out, and 

 the work is well worth encourageitient. 



For the present we abstain from any remarks about various points on 

 which we might disagree with the author. We prefer to wait until the 

 work is finished, and then shall be glad to offer such remarks as might 

 have a bearing on any special point. — L. S, 



MacFarlane's Notes on Arctic Birds.* — From 1861 to 1866 Mr. MacFar- 

 lane had exceptional opportunities to study the birds breeding in the 

 region lying between the lower Mackenzie River and Franklin Bay and 

 southward to the sixty-seventh parallel, and especially in the neighbor- 

 hood of Fort Anderson (lat. 68° 30', long. 128°). The good use he made 

 of his time has been long attested by the generous collections he sent to 

 the Smithsonian Institution. 



In the present paper, — a revised edition of one published two jears ago 

 in the Transactions of the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba, 

 based on the author's memoranda made during these years, — he gives the 

 results of his experience of the breeding habits of about a hundred and 

 thirty species, especially of their nests and eggs. It would be difticult to 

 overestimate the interest and importance of these notes, relating, as 

 they do, to a region so remote and so little known. The only regret they 

 inspire is that matter of such value was not given to the public manj^ 

 years ago. — C. F. B. 



* Notes on and List of Birds and Eggs collected in Arctic America, 1861-1866. 

 By R. MacFarlane, [etc.]. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mas., Vol. XIV, 1891, pp. 413-446. 



