40 Recent Literature. 



It would be superfluous to recall the attention of working ornithologists 

 to a publication whose merits are so obvious and so fully recognized 

 already. We would rather seek to interest the larger class of persons 

 who are lovers of nature, and have the means and leisure to gratify their 

 tastes. So highly ornate a work is necessarily expensive, and its success- 

 ful completion would seem contingent upon the support it receives. Too 

 many cheap, flashy books on natural history find a place in parlors, and 

 even in libraries, where we should expect to find the evidences of a more 

 cultivated taste, and where a work like the present could most desirably 

 replace others so inferior. The position which these " Illustrations " may 

 finally secure in the archives of science can only be told hereafter, when 

 the work is completed ; but, meanwhile, the beauty of each number is its 

 own " excuse for being," and its own recommendation to favor. 



Part II, which appeared last October, contains Plates IV, V, and VI, 

 being illustrations of the nests and eggs of Cyanospiza cyanea, Agelceus 

 phveniceua, and 2'ijrannus carolinensis, with the text of these species, and 

 also of Qui'^calus ceneus — the plate of the latter, we presume, being in 

 preparation for the next number. Some delay in the appearance of the 

 Part was doubtless unavoidable under the circumstances; but we shall, 

 look for further instalments to be published with regularity, and as rap- 

 idly as may be consistent with their faithful execution. — E. C. 



CouKs's Bibliography of American OHxixnoLOGY. — It gives us 

 great pleasure to notice the appearance of a " Second Instalment " * of Dr. 

 Coues's " Universal Bibliography of Ornithology." This part gives the 

 titles of" Faunal Publications " relating to Central and South America, 

 or that portion of America forming the so-called " Neotropical Region." 

 Although containing only about 700 titles, " it is scarcely less complete," 

 the author tells us, " and no less accurate," than the portion relating to 

 the Faunal Publications of North America. In scope and character it is 

 the exact counterpart of the last-named work,f and is worthy of the same 

 high praise that has been universally accorded the first instalment of this 

 great undertaking. The digests of the principal works and papers give 

 everything that can be reasonably desired in such a connection, and prob- 

 ably very few titles calling for record here have escaped the author's at- 

 tention. We miss, however, reference to Mr. Ridgway's papers,^ recently 

 published in the Proceedings of the United States National Museum 

 for 1878, although those of Mr. Lawrence in the same volume are duly 

 entei'ed. Beginning with Marcgrave, in 1648, the list of titles is brought 



* Second Instalment of American Ornithological Bibliography. By Dr. 

 Elliott Cones, U. S. A. Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geograph. Survey of the Terri- 

 tories. Vol. V, pp. 239-330. Sept. 6, 1879. 



t See this Bulletin, Vol. IV, pp. 56, 57. 



Z For a notice of these, see below, pp. 41, 42. 



