VOl i909" VI ] Recent Literature. 443 



rate key portion of the present volume, and as they have already been 

 noticed in detail in 'The Auk' ' it is unnecessary to comment upon them 

 at length in the present connection. A few lines from them, however, 

 may be here transcribed in illustration of the general character of the 

 work here under notice: "In the present case we have a work that is not 

 only elaborate in its pictorial details, simple in method of treatment, and 

 comprehensive in scope, but also systematic and scientific in arrangement 

 . . . .The text is brief, the cuts occupying the greater part. . . . Besides 

 the numerous cuts of structural parts, as bill, feet, tail, etc., each species is 

 figured, either full length or half length, to show the most characteristic 

 parts. . . .[The text] is limited to brief diagnoses, in which the distinctive 

 features are emphasized by the use of special [heavy-face] type .... 

 The author in his 'Key' to North American birds has certainly reduced the 

 difficulty of identifying our birds to a minimum, and anyone so unfortunate 

 as not to be able to identify his specimens in any stage of plumage, 

 by Mr. Cory's 'Keys' may well give up the attempt in despair." 



The nomenclature is strictly that of the A. O. U. Check-List, down to 

 and including the Fourteenth Supplement (July, 1908), with a few rectifica- 

 tions in an insert facing the title-page, based on the Fifteenth Supplement 

 (July, 1909). Each species is concisely characterized, including the im- 

 mature and seasonal variations of plumage, and its general distribution is 

 briefly stated, following which is its status as a bird of Illinois and Wis- 

 consin, with, in the case of rare species, the citation of authorities for its 

 occurrence. This part of the work appears to have been very carefully 

 compiled, and rests on the solid foundation furnished by the various recent 

 works on the birds of special localities within the general area here covered. 



In general the work is exceedingly free from typographical errors, and 

 in other respects is typographically excellent. We are hence the more 

 surprised to meet (on p. 15) ' rectices' in place of rectrices, especially since 

 attention was called to this error when it originally appeared in 1899, and 

 it was corrected in a subsequent reprint of the original work. 



In conciseness of statement, in fullness of detail, in profuseness of illus- 

 tration, and in efficiency and utility as a local bird manual, Mr. Cory's 

 'Birds of Illinois and Wisconsin' is entitled to the highest praise, and we 

 congratulate the author and the Field Museum on the addition of this 

 valuable contribution to ornithological literature. — J. A. A. 



Wrights' 'Birds of the Boston Public Garden.' 2 — In this little book of 

 some 250 pages the author offers the results of his nine seasons' work 

 (1900-1908) as an earnest, persistent and careful observer of the birds of a 



1 Vol. XVI, Oct., 1899, pp. 366, 367 (.Water Birds); Vol. XVII, Jan., 1900, p. 78 

 (Land Birds). 



2 Birds of the | Boston Public Garden | A Study in Migration [ By | Horace Winslow 

 Wright | With an Introduction by | Bradford Torrey | and | Illustrations | [vignette] 

 Boston and New York | Houghton Mifflin Company | The Riverside Press 1909 — 

 12mo, pp. xx + 238, and 8 photographic illustrations. SI. 00 net. 



