350 Recent Literature. [july 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Salvin and Godman's ' Biologia Centrali-Americana. — Aves.' — This 

 great work on the birds of Middle America, 1 which was completed some 

 little time ago, forms four quarto volumes, three of text, aggregating 1680 

 pages, and one of 84 hand-colored plates. The publication was begun in 

 1879 and completed in 1904, having been much delayed by Mr. Salvin s 

 long-continued ill-health and sudden death in 1898, the third volume of 

 the text being completed by Mr. Godman, with the assistance of Dr. R. 

 Bowdler Sharpe and Mr. Ogilvie-Grant. 



The region embraced in this work includes Mexico (except Lower Cali- 

 fornia), and Central America south to a little beyond the political boundary 

 of Panama, and the adjacent islands. "The 1413 species of birds. . . . 

 embrace representatives of 78 families and 539 genera." Of the genera, 

 38 are endemic, as are also 636 of the species. "Of these latter, 271 are 

 peculiar to (a) Mexico, Hondurus, or Guatemala, 3 to (b) Nicaragua, and 

 161 to (c) Costa Rica or Panama, the remainder (189) being more widely 

 distributed within the region or common to two of these divisions." In 

 comparison with other tropical regions, India has 1626 species against 1413 

 for Middle America, but the Indian region is twice larger in area, " so that 

 the balance of numbers is considerably in favor of Central America." 2 



The material for this work was mainly obtained by the authors on their 

 several visits to Central America and Mexico in 1857-58, 1861-63, 1867, 

 1873-74, and 1887-88. In addition to their own field explorations, they 

 employed several skilled collectors for a number of years, who made large 

 collections in various parts of Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama. 

 As the various parts of the work were completed the authors presented 

 their material to the National Museum at South Kensington, amounting 

 in the aggregate to "about 85,000 specimens." 



The ' Biologia Centrali-Americana ' was an enormous undertaking, its 

 scope comprising the fauna and flora of an immense region. Its publica- 

 tion, begun nearly thirty years ago, has proceeded with reasonable rapid- 

 ity, till now only a few of the forty or more volumes — those relating to 

 fishes and certain groups of Ccelenterates — remaining unfinished. It has, 

 quite naturally, greatly exceeded the estimate given in the early pros- 



1 Biologia | Centrali-Americana. | — | Aves. | Vol. I [-III] | (Text.) [Vol. IV. 

 Plates.] | By | Osbert Salvin, F. R. S., dec, | and | Frederick DuCane Godman, D, 

 C. L., F. R. S., &c. | 1879-1904.— 4 vols. 4to, 3 of text and 1 of plates. 



Vol. I, pp. i-xliv, November, 1904; pp. 1-512, pll. col. i-xxxv + xva, September, 

 1879-April, 1887. Vol. II, pp. i-iv, 1-598, pll. xxxvi-lx + liva, lviiia, Iviiift, lixo, 

 December, 1888-February, 1897. Vol. Ill, pp. i-iv, 1-510, pll. lxi-lxxix, November, 

 1897-April, 1904. Vol. IV, pp. i-viii, with plates as per collation above. 



2 Introduction, by Mr. Godman, pp. vi-viii. 



