I go Recent Literattire. [April 



He states that the work is "not a monograph," being limited to the 

 treatment of two topics, the geographical distribution of the species and 

 their mutual relationship, one of his chief objects being to point out what 

 appeared to him "to be errors in their classification." Judged from this 

 latter standpoint, we fear Mr. Seebohm's labors will not be received with 

 much favor bj the generality of his contemporaries. He further says the 

 work "treats only of the classification of the family Charadriidse intosub- 

 familie.s, genera, subgenera, species, and sub-species. I propose for the 

 mostpart to confine the descriptions of each of these groups of individuals 

 to those characters which are diagnostic, and to make the geographical dis- 

 tribution of each species \h^ piece de resistance of my bill of fare" (p. 51). 

 As will be seen by the title, Mr. Seebohm's 'family Charadriidse' includes 

 birds modern ornithologists usually arrange in several families; while 

 his classification of the genera presents strikingly original allocations, 

 the classification here adopted being essentially that followed in the 

 same author's 'History of British Birds.' He sets out with excellent 

 intentions, and his work, aside from matters of nomenclature and classi- 

 fication, is based on sound principles and broad philosophic views. He 

 not only nominally accepts the doctrine of evolution, but adopts it unre- 

 servedly as the basis of his work, accepting, without flinching, its "inevi- 

 table consequences." He recognizes with unstinted praise the "progres- 

 sive tendency of thought " among American ornithologists, with whom 

 "the recognition of sub-species is as much a matter of course as the ad- 

 mission that many species, even amongst those whose geographical distri- 

 bution is very wide, show no tendency to split up into local i-aces" (p. v). 

 He accepts the tests we long since adopted on this side the water as the 

 criterion for species and subspecies, namely, the non-intergradation of the 

 former, and the intergradation of the latter. For subspecies, however, 

 he recognizes what he terms a geographical boundary. " Whatever 

 individual variation be found within the range of a species, if it be not 

 also capable of being defined geographically I do not regard it of subspeci- 

 fic value" (p. v.). lie reiterates his well-known views on the subject of 

 what are and what are not generic characters;* but the results to which 

 they give rise will not, we fear, gain for his views very general accept- 

 ance. In his somewhat extended 'Preface' he announces or summarizes 

 views he presents at greater length in special chapters. Following a very 

 full table of 'Contents' is a 'Systematic Index and Diagnosis (pp. xv- 

 xxviii), in which he gives the 'diagnostic characters' of his groups, from 

 subfamily to subspecies, and in which an attempt is made to indicate the 

 strictly distinctive features of each. 'Chapter I' is devoted to the "Classi- 

 fication of Birds,' which he arranges in five orders, namely : I. Anseri- 

 formes ("Owls, Eagles, Herons, Flamingoes, Ducks, Cormorants, and 

 their allies"). II. Cuculiformes ("Goatsuckers, Cuckoos, Woodpeckers, 

 Parrots, Kingfishers, Hornbills, Rollers, Toucans, Jacamars, Pigeons, and 

 their allies"). III. Passeriformes ("Passerine Birds, Humming-Birds, 

 Swifts, and their allies"). IV. Charadriiformes ("Penguins, Divers, 



* On this point, see Bull, Nutt. Orn, Club, VIII, 1883, p. 100, 



