326 Recent Literature. [f"k 



treated will show how intimate is his knowledge of the ways of the birds 

 whose attitudes under various degrees and kinds of excitement his photo- 

 gravure plates so well depict. — J. A. A. 



Grinnell's 'A Bibliography of California Ornithology.' — In his 'A Bib- 

 liography of California Ornithology,' Mr. Grinnell ' has contributed a 

 work of very great convenience and value, for which he is entitled to the 

 gratitude of every ornithologist who is seriously interested in North 

 American ornithology. The labor of compiling, from original sources, the 

 1785 titles this work is stated to contain can be duly appreciated only by 

 those who have attempted to prepare a complete bibliography of any 

 large group of animals of any considerable geographical area. The work 

 of collecting these titles, the author tells us, was begun in 1900, and has 

 been continued at intervals to date. The list of titles here published 

 covers the period from 1797 to the end of the year 1907, hence eleven years 

 more than a full century. The author states that "every title, except 

 two or three," has been copied by him personally, and "with constant 

 regard to preserving precise wording, spelling and punctuation." The 

 titles are annotated where insufficient to indicate the extent or nature of 

 the information covered by them, particularly as regards the locality, and 

 the species included, if new or constitute important records. In case the 

 names used are not now current, their modern equivalents are indicated. 

 In a word, the work is compiled on the lines of the best modern models, 

 and apparently with a completeness that leaves little to be desired. It is 

 not to be presumed, nor is it assumed by the author, that every title that 

 should be included has been found, since it is a recognized impossibility to 

 attain perfection in a work of this nature. It is properly rounded out by a 

 series of indexes — to authors, to local lists by localities, to the serial pub- 

 lications cited, and to the bird names mentioned, both vernacular and 

 systematic. It is safe to say that this is the most important contribution 

 to the bibliography of North American ornithology since the Couesian 

 contributions of 1878-1880 set the high standard here closely followed. — 

 J. A. A. 



Mearns on Philippine Birds. — Two recent papers by Dr. Mearns deal 

 principally with the birds of the Philippine Islands, the first relating ex- 

 clusively to them, while the other records species collected by Dr. Paul 

 Bartsch in Borneo, Guam, and Midway Island. The first 2 includes three 



1 Cooper Ornithological Club | of California | Pacific Coast Avifauna | No. 5 | 

 A Bibliography of California Ornithology | By | Joseph Grinnell | A Contribution 

 from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology | of the University of California | [seal] 

 Santa Clara, California | Published by the Club | May 15, 1909 — Large 8vo, pp. 1- 

 166, Price, $1.50. 



2 Additions to the List of Philippine Birds, with Descriptions of new and rare 

 Species. By Edgar Alexander Mearns, Associate in Biology, U. S. National Mu- 

 seum. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. XXXVI, No. 1679, pp. 435-447. Published May 

 22, 1909. 



