456 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



hernicla glaucogastra [sic]. He gives reasons for placing 

 GalUnago major, Hehdromas ochrojms, and Totanus totanns 

 (our T. calidris) in the American list, as occasional visitors. 

 With regard to the Green Sandpiper, one of the reasons 

 which he assigns for placing it in the genus Hehdromas is 

 its arboreal nidification, for at the time of writing he was 

 doubtless unaware of the fact that Mr. H. L. Popham had 

 found the Wood-Sandpiper also laying its eggs in old nests 

 of other birds, placed in trees. Dr. Coues goes on to point 

 out " the most General Fault of the A.O.U. Check-List." 

 Formerly the sequence was from the highest (whether Rap- 

 tores or Passeres) to the lowest forms of birds ; but when 

 this arrangement was, as he graphically expresses it, '' turned 

 hind part before,^'' the list of families began with the most 

 generalized forms, and ended with those which are highly 

 specialized. This reversal, however, was not generally 

 carried out as regards the genera and species, most of which 

 remain on " the high to low principle "" ; and this Dr. Coues 

 considers to be " a constitutional vice which can only be 

 eradicated by tearing the List to pieces and putting it together 

 again in better form.'^ We will express no opinion as to how 

 the Code List can be best amended, but we trust that our 

 American cousins will believe that we have long since 

 noticed this inconsistency, although we have not felt called 

 upon to play the ungracious part of the "candid friend." 

 Lastly, Dr. Coues contributes a lengthy and well-deserved 

 eulogy of Professor Newton^s 4th Part of the ' Dictionary of 

 Birds,' quoting in full a passsage which is almost the only 

 one to which some exception has been taken. There are two 

 words which we think will not be found in that master-piece 

 of English : " scientist " and " reliable," to the use of which 

 Dr. Coues is somewhat addicted. 



64. ' Avicula ' : a new Italian Ornithological Journal. 



[Avicula, Giornale Onntologico Italiaiio. Anno I. No. 1. Siena, 



1897.] 



' Avicula ' is a new Italian journal of ornithology, edited 

 by Cav. Sigismondo Brogi, and published at Siena. It is 



