208 Recent Literature. [£l£xi 



Cherrie, and an enumeration of the specimens of each obtained, together 

 with the dates, localities and measurements, and the collector's notes on 

 the color of iris, bill, feet, and soft parts, etc.; (2) comment on the general 

 character of the specimens, when necessary; (3) previous records of the 

 species from Cayenne; (4) reference to the place of original description of 

 the species, the citation of synonyms, if any, and a statement of the type 

 locality, which is here sometimes for the first time assigned; (5) occasional 

 comment (in footnotes) on questions of nomenclature. Only three forms 

 (subspecies) are described as new, which may be taken to indicate that the 

 ornis of Cayenne is now pretty well known. — J. A. A. 



'Cassinia.' - — This always interesting annual ' contains the usual variety 

 of matter relating to the birds of eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and 

 Delaware. Besides the abstract of the Proceeding of the Delaware Valley 

 Ornithological Club, the membership lists of the Club, and a bibliography 

 of contributions to the ornithology of the region, it contains the usual 

 number of short papers, and Mr. Stone's report on the Spring Migration in 

 the vicinity of Philadelphia, based on the combined observations of the 

 members of the Club. 



The first paper is a biographical sketch of George Ord, with a portrait, 

 by Samuel N. Rhoads, in which is summarized the little that is at present 

 known of the life and literary work of this pioneer American zoologist. 

 Ord was born March 4, 1781, but whether in Philadelphia or in England 

 Mr. Rhoads is unable to state, and died in Philadelphia in 1866. He is 

 principally known as the biographer and literary executor of Alexander 

 Wilson, he having edited Wilson's eighth volume, and written the text 

 of the ninth, both volumes having been published after Wilson's death. 

 He also contributed the zoological matter to the second American edition 

 of Guthrie's Geography, a work now so rare that only two or three copies 

 are known to exist. This contribution, on account of its rarity and im- 

 portance, was republished by Mr. Rhoads in 1894. Ord also published 

 two editions of 'Wilson's American Ornithology,' respectively in 1824 and 

 1828-29, to which he contributed original matter. He also published 

 biographies of Thomas Say and C. A. Lesuer. According to Mr. Rhoads, 

 Ord was a lexicographer as well as a naturalist ; his extensive contributions 

 to Noah Webster's Dictionary were unacknowledged; Latham, of London, 

 later "secured from Ord the whole MSS. of nearly forty years' work in 

 philology, and in every instance, where he used it in compiling his new 

 edition of Johnson's Dictionary he makes acknowledgment to the Ord 

 MSS." Ord was an office-bearer for many years in both the American 

 Philosophical Society and Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 

 of which latter he was President, 1851-1858, and, at different times, Secre- 

 tary, Treasurer, and Vice-President of the Philosophical Society. 



1 Cassinia, A Bird Annual. Proceedings of the Delaware Valley Ornithological 

 Club of Philadelphia. 1908. Issued March, 1909. 8vo, pp. 84, and 3 half-tone 

 plates. Price, 50 cents. 



