I 64 Recent Literature. 



iicrcnt literature. 



Ridgway's Nomenclature of North American Birds.* — So many 

 species of birds have been recently added to the North American 

 fauna, and so many important changes have been made in the nomencla- 

 ture of species previously catalogued as North American, since the publica- 

 tion of Dr. Coues's " Check List of North American Birds" in 1874, and 

 especially since the appearance of Professor Baird's " Catalogue of 

 North American Birds " in 1859, tnat a new check list, faithfully embody- 

 ing these changes and additions, had become a necessity when Mr. Ridg- 

 w r ay set about the preparation of the present catalogue. t Mr. Ridgway's 

 well-known familiarity with North American birds, and his abundant 

 resources for their investigation, render the authorship of the present 

 catalogue eminently fitting, while its publication under the direction of 

 the Smithsonian Institution lends to it a standing and an influence 

 that would alone go far toward making it authoritative. Like Audubon's 

 •• Synopsis" of 1839, Baird's " Catalogue" of 1859, anc ^ Coues's ••Check 

 List" of 1874. its publication marks an epoch in North American 

 ornithology, and will form, like the preceding, a datum-point in the history 

 of the subject. It becomes, therefore, a work of high importance and one 

 to the consideration of which we may well give considerable space. 



An interval of twenty years elapsed between the appearance of Audubon's 

 •• Synopsis " and Baird's " Catalogue." In 18390111- vast western territories 

 were ornithologically almost unknown. Audubon had not then visited 

 the Upper Missouri region, but Town send had crossed the continent and 

 explored hastily the plains of the Columbia and the North-west Coast, 

 bringing therefrom many new species of birds. But the great central 

 region and the South-west, still Mexican territory, remained untouched, 

 During the twenty years following, this whole vast region was traversed 

 in the interest of science. The various surveys for a railroad route to 

 the Pacific, begun in 1853 and continued for four years, carried several 



* Nomenclature of North American Birds chiefly contained in the United States 

 National Museum. By Robert Ridgway. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 21. Published 

 under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution. Washington : Government 

 Printing Office, 1881. 8vo. pp. 1-94. 



f The memoir now under notice appeared originally several months since (Proc. 

 U.S. Nat. Mus., Vol. Ill, pp. 163-246, Aug. 24-Sept. 4, 1880) under the title, " A Cat- 

 alogue of the Birds of North America." " This catalogue," says its author, " is really 

 the basis of the present one, which is essentially a revised edition, very mater-ally 

 modified, however, by numerous alterations and corrections, involving not only the 

 change of a considerable number of names, but also the writing of a new introduction, 

 etc. The edition the title of which has just been quoted has not been published separate- 

 ly, although a number of extras were struck off for private use" (op. cit., p. 5). 



