314 Recent Literature. \_^^\y 



There is also a very full statement of the geographical distribution, 

 prepared especially for use in the present connection by Dr. Bishop, 

 who has contributed the general matter relating to the River Ducks, Sea 

 Ducks, Mergansers, Geese, Swans, the Rail Family, etc., and the notices 

 of the extra-limital species, and some other matter. 'The Water-Fowl 

 Family' is thus a book for sportsmen which maj' be looked upon as tech- 

 nically correct in all matters of scientific detail, while the biographies of 

 the species are satisfactorily full, and the details especially of interest to the 

 sportsman are not omitted. The attention of ornithologists is directed to 

 this book as containing much matter of permanent value from the stand- 

 point of the naturalist, and especially to Dr. Bishop's carefully prepared 

 summaries of the ' habitats ' of the species, which give both the breeding 

 and winter ranges, so far as they are at present known. There is also a 

 note bj' Dr. Bishop (p. 365) on the intergradation of Tringa couesi ^.nA T. 

 ftiloctietyiis, and apparently the first descriptions of the downy 3'oung of 

 several species of the Ducks and Shore-birds. — J. A. A. 



The 'New' Edition of Nuttall. — Two previous editions of the 'New 

 Nuttall ' have appeared during the last twelve years, the first in 1891, 

 reviewed at length and somewhat severely in Volume IX of 'The Auk' 

 (pp. 59-61), and the second in 1896, noticed in 'The Auk' for January, 

 1897 (XIV, p. 109). The present (third) edition ' is a reprint from the 

 electrotj'pe plates of the second edition, with the omission of Mr. Cham- 

 berlain's preface, and a reversion to the misleading titlepage of the first 

 edition of the ' New Nuttall.' What we have is not ' A Popular Handbook 

 of the Birds of the United States and Canada,' but, as properly expressed 

 in the title of the second edition, ' A Popular Handbook of the Ornithol- 

 ogy of Eastern North America.' Why the publishers should revert to 

 Nuttall's original title when the little of Nuttall's original work that 

 related to "species which occur only to the westward of the Mississippi 

 valley " has been omitted (see preface to first edition), is a question they 

 will doubtless be frequently called upon to answer by unsuspecting pur- 

 chasers of ' A Popular Handbook of the Birds of the United States and 

 Canada.' 



The present edition is printed on thin paper, thus bringing it within 

 convenient compass for binding as a single volume ; and the price being 

 reduced from $7.50 to $3.00 will doubtless render the work available to a 



1 A Popular Handbook | of the | Birds of the United States | and Canada | 

 By Thomas Nuttall | New Revised and Annotated Edition | By Montague 

 Chamberlain | With Additions, and One Hundred and Ten | Illustrations in 

 Color I Boston | Little, Brown, and Company | 1903 — Crown 8vo, two vol- 

 umes bound in one, as separately paged 'parts.' Part I, Land Birds, pp. xliv 

 -\- 473 ; Part II, Game and Water Birds, pp. be -|- 431 ; pll. col. i — xx, and 172 

 text cuts. Price, $3.00. 



