54 Recent Literature 



artistic value in tJieir present position. Between this collection of plates 

 and the text is inserted Ord's biography of ^Vilson. 



No one can help rejoicing at any effort to disseminate more widely an 

 acquaintance with Alexander Wilson and his charming and painstaking 

 work. Happy the young ornithologist whose first draughts are from this 

 fountain. But simply to reprint Wilson, even with Bonaparte added, at 

 $ 7.50, pointing out none of the errors, nor supplementing the short- 

 comings, is, to say the least, utterly unnecessary to the advancement of 

 the science. What loouJd be welcome is an edition of Wilson at moderate 

 price, prepared under the direction of a competent ornithologist, which 

 should be a commentary on the splendid work of the Father of American 

 Ornithology, and should indicate in a brief and graphic way the progress 

 in the science since his death. Such a work would be of great value to 

 the ordinary man of culture as well as to the specialist; and to fail to do 

 this, as in the present case, simply represents a grand opportunity thrown 

 away. This is the more to be regretted since the publishers seem to have 

 had an inkling of the truth, and made a faint effort toward it by including 

 Baird's Catalogue, which was a fair nominal list at the time of the former 

 reprint, but is now obsolete in all particulars, and is thus worse than use- 

 less as an addition to Wilson's volume. — E. I. 



CouEs's Birds of the Colorado Valley. — Judging by the vol- 

 ume now at hand,* the " Bii-ds of the Colorado Valley " will leave far 

 in the shade the same author's very useful and justly popular hand-book 

 of the " Birds of the Northwest," to which this work is designed as a com- 

 plementary treatise. It has a much wider scope, treating exhaustively the 

 technicalities of the general subject of North American Ornithology, es- 

 pecially its bibliographical phases. The biographical portion of the work 

 is limited to the species inhabiting the Colorado Basin. This constitutes 

 the chief part of the text, and is evidently written to meet the wants and 

 tastes of the general public. It is accordingly couched in well-turned 

 periods, and displays the graceful diction, the facility of expression, and 

 the telling ways of putting things that so strongly mark Dr. Coues's at- 

 temjjts at a popular presentation of natural history subjects, and which 

 give to his style an attractiveness few writers are able to command. The 

 plan of the work, we are glad to see, so far departs from that followed in 

 the " Birds of the Northwest" as to include descriptions of the species. 

 These have evidently been drawn up with special regard to conciseness 

 and precision, and of course render the work a convenient hand-book of 

 the birds of the region specially treated. 



* Birds of the Colorado Valley. A Repository of Scientific and Popular In- 

 formation concerning North American Ornithology. By Elliott Coues. Part 

 First. Passeres to Laniidie. Bibliographical Appendix. Seventy illustrations 

 (woodcuts). 8vo. pp. xvi, 807. Washington, Government Printing Office, 

 1878. "Miscellaneous Publications, No. 11 " of the United States Geological 

 Suj'vey of the Territories, F. V. Hayden, U. S. Geologist-in-Cbarge. 



