^°'' ^^1 Recent Literature. 7 1 



1903 J / O 



pigeons that, superficiallv at least, have a resemblance to both quails and 

 doves. It would be better to write the first waterthrush, in conformit\- 

 with meadowlark and nighthawk. 



In short, the whole matter resolves itself into a question of convenience, 

 since convenience determines use, which in turn is 'current usage' ; and 

 current usage as already said, is not necessarily established by our ' stand- 

 ard authorities,' but by the people to whom the words are most necessary, 

 and by whom they are hence most used. In British English many words 

 are spelled differently from what they are in American English, and 

 hyphens are used in the former much more freely, as a rule, than in the 

 latter. In American publications of all sorts, except dictionaries, the 

 names of birds, animals and plants are written, as regards hyphenized 

 words, practically in accordance with the system followed in the A. O. U. 

 Check-List. Bv the British method, and by Dr. Doran's rules, we should 

 lose most of our sparrows, gulls, plovers, rails, etc., and should have, in 

 their places, Song-Sparrows, Tree-Sparrows, Field-Sparrows, Sage-Spar- 

 rows, Vesper-Sparrows, and similarly hyphenized gull-names, plover- 

 names, rail-names, and so on to the end of the list, producing little short 

 of a revolution in the arrangement of our bird names in indexes, and in 

 the use of the hyphen in vernacular names of animals in general, and 

 the introduction of a method entirely contrary to present tendencies in 

 American English. Better a little inconsistency than hard-and-fast rules 

 that tend to inconvenient and cumbersome word-forms without any ade- 

 quately offsetting advantage. — J.A.Allen, Am. M/ts. JVat. //t'st., Nczv 

 York Citv. 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Ridgway's 'Birds of North and Middle America.' Part II. — It is with 

 great pleasure that we record the appearance of Part II ' of Mr. Ridgway's 

 * Birds of North and Middle America.' In reviewing Part I (Auk, XIX, 



' The Birds | of | North and Middle America : | A Descriptive Catalogue | 

 of the I Higher Groups, Genera, Species, and Subspecies of Birds | known to 

 occur in North America, from the | Arctic Lands to the Isthmus of Panama, 



I the West Indies and other Islands | of the Caribbean Sea, and the Gala- 

 pagos Archipelago. | By | Robert Ridgway, | Curator, Division of Birds. | — 



I Part II. I Family Tanagridas — The Tanagers. | Family Icteridas — The 

 Troupials. | Family Coerebidse — The Honey Creepers. — Family 'Mniotiltidae 

 — The Wood Warblers. | — | Washington: | Government Printing Office. | 

 1902. = Bulletin of the United States National Museum, No. 50. Part II. — 

 Svo, pp. i-xx -\- 1-S34, pU. i-xxii. 



