VOl i907 IV ]. Recent Literature. 351 



pectuses, it comprising some 20,000 pages of text, and about 1500 plates,, 

 many of them colored. The different parts having been prepared by- 

 eminent specialists, it is in the highest degree authoritative, and forms an 

 enduring monument to the enterprise, ability, and persistence of its editors 

 and projectors, Messrs. F. DuCane Godman and Osbert Salvin. As a 

 notice of the general scope and plan of the work has already been 

 given in this journal, 1 and also an extended review of Volume I of the 

 'Aves,' 2 it remains to notice here the concluding bird volumes. 



Mr. Robert Ridgway, in reviewing the first volume of the 'Aves' (/. c), 

 said of it: "Volume I. . . .includes the whole of the Oscines, and is the 

 only single and approximately complete work in existence [in 1890] on the 

 special subject to which it pertains. The high reputation of the authors 

 is of itself a sufficient guarantee that their task has been intelligently and 

 thoroughly performed, and has resulted in a grand work which is absolutely 

 indispensable to students of New World ornithology, highly useful to those 

 who labor in other geographical fields, and must long remain the standard 

 authority on the birds of Central America." This high praise applies in 

 equal force to the succeeding volumes, as do also Mr. Ridgway's criticisms 

 of some of its defects. Thus, he says: "As was to be expected from the 

 character of their previous writings on the same subject, the authors of 

 the 'Biologia' treat their subject from the conservative standpoint to 

 which English naturalists, for the most part, still adhere; and it is the 

 natural sequence of this method, but more especially the unfortunate 

 adoption of the purely binomial system of nomenclature which affords 

 most of the grounds for criticism; the very great importance of the work 

 rendering such defects highly conspicuous." In other words, when the 

 binomial system is strictly followed, it inevitably leads to inconsistent 

 rulings in regard to the status of forms commonly recognized as sub- 

 species, some being given full specific rank and others, equally entitled 

 to recognition, being reduced to synonyms. 



Volume II includes the suborders Oligomyodse and Tracheophonse of 

 the Passeres, the Macrochires, Cypseli, Caprimulgi, Pici, Coccyges, and 

 Psittaci; Vol. Ill, the Striges, Accipitres, Steganopodes, Herodiones, 

 Phcenicopteri, Anseres, Columbae, Gallinse, Geranomorphae, Limicolse, 

 Gavise, Tubinares, Pygopodes, Alcse, and Crypturi; Vol. IV consists of 

 84 hand-colored plates, representing 150 previously unfigured birds, 

 drawn by J. G. Keulemans, with the explanatory 'List of the Plates.' 



The classification adopted is that of Sclater and Salvin 's 'Nomenclator 

 Avium Neotropicalium,' published in 1873. In the matter of nomencla- 

 ture, the 1766 edition of Linnaeus's 'Systema Naturae' is taken as the date 

 of departure, and the binomial system is strictly adhered to throughout, 

 subspecies, as such, not being recognized, with, as already noted, many 



1 Bull. Nuttall Orn. Club, VI, 1881, pp. 174, 175. 

 2 Auk, VII, 1890, pp. 189-195, by R. Ridgway. 



