V "^'] Recent Literature. 24 I 



work has been unobtainable to many who desire to consult its pages. It 

 is therefore with great pleasure that we welcome this valuable handbook, 

 revised to date, much enlarged, and in a dress more befitting its scientific 

 importance and popular interest. In place of the introductory essay 'On 

 Birds and Bird Matters' of the first edition, we have here a few pages on 

 the general subject, with special reference to migration, followed by a 

 dozen pages of directions as to how to collect and prepare specimens for 

 the cabinet. 



The species treated number 317 as against 302 in the first edition, to 

 which nearly 400 pages of the work are formally devoted, giving about a 

 page and a quarter to each species. The technical, descriptive portion 

 of the text is printed in small type, the biographical in much larger type. 

 The whole has evidently been carefully revised, and much new matter 

 added to the biographies, which in many instances have been to a large 

 extent rewritten, the recent literature of the subject having been placed 

 under contribution. As the author himself says : "In the present edition, 

 it has been my object to place on record, as far as possible, the name of 

 every bird that has been observed in Ontario; to show how the different 

 species are distributed throughout the Province; ami especially, to tell 

 where they spend the breeding season. To do this, I have had to refer to 

 the notes of those who have visited the remote homes of the birds, at 

 points often far apart and not easy of access, and to use their observations, 

 published or otherwise, when they tend to throw light on the historv of 

 the birds observed in Ontario." Credit is of course duly given for the 

 information thus obtained. 



As ornithologists well know, the author of the 'Birds of Ontario' is well 

 equipped for his task, and, as would be expected, has done his work well, 

 the second edition being fully abreast of the subject, the few faults of the 

 first edition having been corrected, and the more important recent dis- 

 coveries in the field here covered being duly incorporated. The text is 

 illustrated with numerous cuts, though none of them appear to be here 

 for the first time published. An excellent portrait of the author forms a 

 fitting frontispiece to the volume, which will doubtless prove a boon to 

 the bird lovers of Ontario and adjoining Provinces and States. 



We notice that the last bird given — inserted as an addendum — is the 

 Black-capped Petrel {Alstrclata hasitata ) , the record being based on a 

 specimen found dead near Toronto, Oct. 30, 1S93. This is of interest as 

 making the third inland record for this species during the autumn of 

 1S93, one having been taken at Blacksburg, Va., Aug. 30, 1S93 (see Auk, 

 X, p. 361), and another at Oneida Lake, N. Y., Aug. 28, 1S93 (Auk, XI, 

 p. 162). We have private information of the capture also of a specimen 

 in Vermont at about the same time. Doubtless these occurrences of this 

 little known sea-bird so far inland have some relation to the great cyclone 

 of August 26-27, which proved so disastrous to property as well as bird 

 life on the coast of South Carolina (ef. Wayne, Auk, XI, p. 85). — J. A. A. 

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