192 BihJiograpMcal Notices. 



BIBLIOGllAPHICAL NOTICES. 



A Main%(al of North- American Birds. By Eobeet Ridgwat. Illus- 

 trated by 464 outline- drawings of the generic characters. Second 

 Edition. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1805. 1 vol., 

 large 8vo, 653 pp. 



RiDGWATs ' Manual of North-American Birds ' has proved such a 

 boon to working ornithologists that we gladly welcome a second 

 edition, in which thp work is brought up to date and all additions 

 to the North-American avifauna since 1887 are included. The 

 work was, we may remark, originally projected by the late Professor 

 Spencer F. Baird, whose portrait forms the frontispiece to both 

 editions, and was completed by Mr. Bidgway, his pupil ; and the 

 magnificent collections of North-American birds and eggs in the 

 National Museum at \yashington have been utilized in the descrip- 

 tions giveu of the various species and subspecies. In the first 

 edition four new genera were proposed and thirty-nine species and 

 subspecies described as new, to which are added in the present 

 edition two subgenera, Oreospiza (type Fringilla chlorura, Aud.) 

 and Arremonops (type Emhernagra rufivirgata, Lawr.), and ninety- 

 one species and subspecies, chiefiy the latter, as is the case in most 

 American ornithological publications of the present day, for the 

 number of the former amounts only to nineteen, all the rest being 

 subspecies. 



The main portion of the work differs but little from the first 

 edition, even the original pagination having been retained, the 

 alterations consisting chiefly of revision of the specific names ; and 

 the new species and subspecies are all given in the Appendix, except 

 in the case of twelve, which were included in the analytical keys, 

 where it was only necessary to change the typography of the names 

 and prefix the catalogue-number of the American Ornithologists' 

 Union's ' Check-list of North- American Birds.' Consequently the 

 new matter is almost entirely confined to the Appendix. 



Three species are expunged from the list — ^cJimophorus ClarTcii, 

 as being almost certainly only the female of ^. occidentalis ; Synthli- 

 borawphus wumizusume, as not belonging to the North-American 

 avifauna ; and DolicJionyx oryzivorus alhimicha, as being a bad sub- 

 species. Amongst the species added to the list since the publication 

 of the last edition are several game-birds which have been intro- 

 duced, viz. Tetrao tetrix, which has been introduced into Newfound- 

 land and is said to be naturalized there ; Chrysolophus pictus and 

 OenncBUS nycthemerus, which have been introduced into Western 

 Oregon ; and ChrysolopJins Amherstice. Numenius urqnata is in- 

 cluded as having been said to have been taken on Long Island, and 

 Falco tinnunculus is also added, but it is not stated on what ground. 

 Our European Cuckoo, Cuculns canoriis, is included as a subspecies 

 (Cuculus canorus telephonus\ and is said to occur accidentally on 



