"jfjg^ J Recent Literature. 2A.1 



entlj had llie latter asserted their infallibility, and so vigorously had 

 they assailed any who ventured to doubt it, that most peaceable ornithol- 

 ogists found it best to bend to the furious blast, and in some sort to 

 acquiesce at least in the phraseology of the self-styled interpreters of 

 Creative Will." 



That is an example of the chastening rod to which allusion has been 

 Tnade. With it comes the unfailing box of ointment we also mentioned : 



" But, while thus lamenting this unfortunate perversion into a mistaken 

 channel of ornithological energy, we must not over-blame those who 

 caused it. Macleay indeed never pretended to a high position in this 

 branch of science, his tastes lying in the direction of Entomology ; but 

 few of their countrymen knew more of Birds than did Swainson and 

 Vigors; and, while the latter, as editor for many years of the Zoological 

 jfournal, and the first Secretary of the Zoological Society, has especial 

 claims to the regard of all zoologists, so the former's indefatigable pursuit 

 of Natural History, and conscientious labour in its behalf — among other 

 •ways by means of his graceful pencil — deserve to be remembered as a set- 

 off against the injury he unwittingly caused." 



A rapid survey of F^aunal works is next taken, carrying the subject to 

 p. 4^. This is necessarily limited " to those countries alone which form 

 the homes of English people, or are commonlv visited by them in 

 ordinary travel." In this retrospect American Faunists will find them- 

 selves at full proportionate length. 



But the main burden of the Introduction, carried almost to its end, is 

 the review of modern systematic Ornithology, " to trace the rise of the 

 present more advanced school of ornithologists whose labours, preliminary 

 as we must still regard them to be, yet give signs of far greater promise " 

 (p. ./f). A difficult task is here self-imposed at the start; it is one of 

 peculiar delicacy toward the finish, when living contemporaries, often but 

 not always friends, sometimes pupils, must be brought to book to answer 

 for their performances. Professor Newton's idea is, to .set forth those 

 works and those persons he considers to have rendered the most solid 

 service in constructing an enduring morphological Systema Aviiitn upon 

 the principle of genetic relationships, in accordance with accepted theories 

 or proven facts of evolution. We can possibly indicate by a bare list of 

 names the course which Prof. Newton's treatment of this theme takes. 

 The leading names are : Nitzsch — Etienne Geoffroy St.-Iiilaire — Tiede- 

 mann — Nitzsch — Merrem — De Blainville — Nitzsch — Nitzsch apud 

 Naumann — L'Herminier — Nitzsch — Berthold — Cuvier — Gloger — 

 Sundevall — L'Herminier — Macgillivray — Owen — Blyth — J. F. Brandt 

 — Keyserling and Blasius — Nitzsch ed. Burmeister — Kessler — Mac- 

 gillivray apud Audubon — J. MUUer — Cornay — Cabanis — Bonaparte — 

 Hogg — E. Newman — Gervais — Blanchard — Eyton — A. B. Meyer — 

 Des Murs — Darwin and Wallace — Parker — A. Wagner — Lilljeborg — 

 Huxley — A. Milne-Edwaids — Marsh — Sundevall — Reichenow — Garrod 

 and Forbes — Murie — Wallace — Sclater — Stejneger — Fiirbringer — 



