,}jl. Recent Literatut e. }S7 



improbable that these small islands, like the West Indies themselves, 

 should now have species resident upon them which were originally 

 derived from the mainland where they have since yielded to the conti- 

 nental struggle for existence and given place to better adapted forms. 

 Margarops on Bonaire is a case in point; Spindalis on Coznmel is 

 perhaps a similar instance. — F. M. C. 



Newton's Dictionary of Birds, Part I.' — The scope of this highly useful 

 and important work is thus defined by its principal author : "Those who 

 may look into this book are warned that they will not find a complete 

 treatise on Ornithology, any more than an attempt to include in it all the 

 names under which birds, even the commonest, are known. Taking as 

 its foundation a series of articles contributed to the ninth edition of the 

 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' I have tried, first, to modify them into some- 

 thing like continuity, so far as an alphabetical arrangement will admit; 

 and, next, to supplement them by the intercalation of a much greater 

 number, be they short or long, to serve the same end. ... In the 

 difficult task of choosing subjects for additional articles, one of my main 

 objects has been to supply information which I know, from enquiries often 

 made of me, to be greatly needed." The selection of names to be inserted, 

 say^ the author, has been quite arbitrary, such compound names as Crow- 

 Shrike, Crow-Titmouse, Shrike-Crow, Titmouse-Thrush, and the like, 

 having been excluded, as well as "a vast number of local names of even 

 British Birds," while such names as Caracara, Koel, Mollyinawk, Tom- 

 fool , etc., which occur more or less frequently in books of all sorts, but 

 especially in works of travel, are included. Those of course who are 

 familiar with the character of the ornithological matter in the 'Encyclo- 

 paedia Britannica' need not be told that the work is not made up simply of 

 bird names and their definitions, but includes the whole range of ornith- 

 ology, embracing the anatomy of birds, their classification, their geograph- 

 ical distribution and much purely biographical matter, as will be noted 

 later. 



In respect to the authorship of the work, we are told that the anatom- 

 ical portions are mainly contributed by Dr. Gadow, and that they bring, in 

 the opinion of the principal author, "the anatomical portion to a level 

 hitherto unattained in any book that has appeared." "For other contri- 

 butions of not less value," says Professor Newton, "I have to thank my 

 old pupil Mr. Lydekker, my learned colleague Professor Roy, and my 

 esteemed correspondent Dr. Shufeldt, formerly of the United States 

 Army." 



1 A Dictionary of Birds. By Alfred Newton. Assisted by Hans Gadow. With 

 Contributions from Richard Lydekker, M. A., F. G. S., Charles S. Roy, M. A., 

 F. R. S., and Robert W. Shufeldt, M. D., late United States Army. Part I (A- 

 Ga). London, Adam and Charles Black, 1893. 8vo.,pp. viii, 304, map, and numer- 

 ous illustrations in the text. 



