Vol.^XIVJ Recent Literature. 333 



the correction of past errors. As Prof. Milier, who has of course due 

 regard for philological proprieties, well says: "We may recognize the 

 law of priority as absolute, and retain the many monstrous and mis- 

 spelled names to be found on the records of natural history, just as their 

 makers left them. They are historic facts and serye to mark the group 

 of animals or plants to which they apply, but these misshapen forms of 

 words are not ornamental and they are unworthy of scholars. It is to be 

 hoped that, in future, greater care may be taken to make words that giye 

 correctly the idea the author may have intended. ... It costs no more to 

 frame a name properly than to leaye it a monstrosity." — J. A. A. 



Chapman's Notes on Birds Observed in Yucatan.' — In the present 

 paper Mr. Chapman gives the ornithological results of his short 

 excursion to Yucatan, where, in March, 1896, he spent about three weeks 

 at Chichen-Itza in the study of bird-life. Seventy-four species were 

 observed, a list of which, together with critical notes and remarks on 

 habits, are here given, preceded by a short sketch of the physical features 

 of the region and the derivation of its avifauna. 



A new genus, Agriocharis (p. 2SS), is created for the reception of the 

 Ocellated Turkey; and an attempt is made to prove the Guatemalan 

 Green Jay specifically distinct from the Rio Grande bird. With the latter 

 we are unable to agree. 



A very useful list of the principal contributions to Yucatan birds 

 concludes the paper. — C. W. R. 



' Upon the Tree-Tops.' ^ — Students of birds out of doors will welcome 

 a new volume by Mrs. Miller. Her enthusiastic and careful observations 

 of the home-life of birds have not only added to our knowledge of the 

 habits of species whose ways we supposed were well known, but they have 

 shown how much there is in bird-life to interest every stroller in the 

 woods and fields. It is the human-like nature of birds that appeals to 

 Mrs. Miller and in writing from this point of view she brings birds nearer 

 to us and arouses a sympathetic interest in them even among readers to 

 whom her feathered friends are strangers. 



In the present volume we have accounts of the Loggerhead Shrike, 

 Winter Wren, Yellow-breasted Chat, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and 

 more or less extended observations on numerous other birds in chapters 

 entitled, 'Tramps with an Enthusiast,' 'Young America in Feathers,' 

 ♦Down the Meadow,' 'In a Colorado Nook,' and 'The Idyl of an Empty 



'Notes on Birds observed in Yucatan. By Frank M. Chapman. Bulletin 

 of the American Museum of Natural History, VIII, pp. 271-290, Dec. 11, 1896. 



'•^ Upon the Tree-Tops. By Olive Thome Miller. Illustrated by J. Carter 

 Beard. Boston and New York : Houghton, Mifflin and Co. The Riverside 

 Press, Cambridge, 1S97. i6mo, pp. ix -(- 245, pll. x. 



