iSSS.] Recent Lileratnre. iSo 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Chamberlain's Canadian Birds.* — This is not among the least of recent 

 indications of activity of Canadian workers. It is more extensive in its 

 scope tluin Mr. Mcllwraith's treatise, inchiding a systematic annotated list 

 of all the birds of North America, north of the United States and British 

 Boundary, excepting Alaska. Considerably more than one-half oi North 

 American Birds are found within these broad limits, and Mr. Chamber- 

 lain has occasion to treat 556 species. These are arranged and named 

 according to the A. O. U. Code and Check-List, and quite fully annotated 

 from all the information available to the author, so far as their geograph- 

 ical distribution is concerned. Without any other biographical matter, 

 it makes a handsome volume of convenient size, invaluable for ready 

 reference. In paper and typography, it is decidedly thebest-looking bird- 

 book that has reached us from 'over the line,' though not quite free from 

 misprints, and by some oversight repeatedly giving generic names with 

 a lower-case initial letter. But these are trifling defects, of no weight in 

 estimating the value of the treatise. It at once takes a place of its own, 

 distinct from Mr. Mcllwraith's; and the two together very fairly represent 

 what Canada has to oft'er us at present in respect of ornithology. 



In his preface Mr. Chamberlain takes occasion to pointedly comment 

 upon the backwardness in coming forward of the Canadian authorities 

 in the matter of ornithology. His strictures should have great weight 

 because they are simply true, and because they are said by one who has 

 earned the right to speak by his own talents, industry and enterprise. 

 We heartily welcome the successful outcome of the author's researches 

 thus far, and wish him all favorable conditions for their further prosecu- 

 tion.— E. C. 



Seebohm's -Geographical Distribution of the Charadriidae.' — Mr. See- 

 bohm's book on the 'CharadriidiE,'t or 'Plovers, Sandpipers, Snipes, and 

 their Allies,' is a large quarto, illustrated with twenty-one beautifully col- 

 ored plates of species hitherto unfigured or badly figured ; in typographi- 

 cal execution it is almost faultless, forming altogether a sumptuous speci- 

 men of book-making. The text abounds in beautiful cuts, the greater 

 part being head-pieces or illustrations of structural details. 



* A Catalogue | of | Canadian Birds, | with | Notes on the Distribution of tlie 

 Species. | By | Montague Chamberlain. | — | Saint John, N. B. | J & A. McMillan, 

 98 Prince William Street. | 1887. | i vol. cloth, sm. 4to paper, 8vo typebed, title 

 and pp. i— vi, i 1., 1-143. 



t The I Geographical Distribution | of the Family | Charadriidae | or the | Plovers, 

 Sandpipers, Snipes, and their Allies. | By | Henry Seebohiii | author of "Siberia in 

 Europe,'' "Siberiain Asia," "Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum" (Vol. 5), ] 

 "A history of British Birds, with coloured Illustrations of their Eggs," etc. | [Vig- 

 nette — group of AvocPts.] London : | Henry Sothern & Co., 136 Strand, W. C. and 

 36 Piccadilly, W. ; | Manchester, 49, Cross Street. — No date. 410. pp. .\.\ix, 524, pll. 

 xxi, numerous cuts in the text. On the back-title of the cover is the date, 1888. 



