236 Recent Literature. 



%mv& literature. 



Stearns and Coues's " New England Bird Life."* — After many 

 years of waiting we at length have a work on New England birds of 

 which no ornithologist need feel ashamed. Indeed, this goes without 

 saving when it is known that " New England Bird Life " is edited by Dr. 

 Coues. It is a timely little volume and forms so important an addition 

 to the literature of the subject of which it treats that we propose to con- 

 sider it at some length. 



Immediately following the somewhat significant " Editor's Preface " is 

 an " Introduction," which includes exceedingly useful chapters on the 

 classification and structure of birds ; the "Preparation of Specimens for 

 Study"; the "Subject of Faunal Areas"; and the 'Literature of New 

 England Ornithology." This preliminary portion occupies fifty pages, 

 not one of which can be considered superfluous. The main body of the 

 work comprises two hundred and seventy pages and treats the successive 

 families in order, from the Thrushes through the Crows and Jays, thus em- 

 bracing the whole order of Oscines. It is a pity that so many of our 

 works are similarly incomplete, but in the present case we are assured 

 that Part I is " to be followed as soon as practicable, by a second volume, 

 completing the treatise " ; and perhaps it is not too much to hope that noth- 

 ing will occur to prevent the fulfilment of this promise. 



The intended scope of the book is thus trenchantly defined in the 

 Preface: "It is the object of the present volume to go carefully over 

 the whole ground, and to present, in concise and convenient form, an 

 epitome of the Bird-life of New England. The claims of each species 

 to be considered a member of the New England Fauna are critically 

 examined, and not one is admitted upon insufficient evidence of its 

 occurrence within this area; the design being to give a thoroughly reliable 

 list of the Birds, with an account of the leading facts in the life-history 

 of each species. The plan of the work includes brief descriptions of the 

 birds themselves, enabling one to identify any specimen he may have in 

 hand; the local distribution, migration, and relative abundance of every 

 species; together with as much general information respecting their 

 habits as can conveniently be brought within the compass of a hand-book 

 of New England Ornithology." 



This plan is fully and consistently followed to the end,- never slighted, 

 seldom overstepped. The specific characters are given in the very simp- 

 lest language but usually with sufficient definiteness to meet all the 



* New England Bird Life, being a Manual of New England Ornithology, revised and 

 edited from the manuscript of Winfrid A. Stearns, Member of the Nuttall Ornithological 

 Club, etc., by Dr. Elliott Coues, U. S. A., Member of the Academy, etc. Part I — 

 Oscines. Boston, Lee and Shepard, Publishers. New York, Charles T. Dillingham, 

 1881, 8vo. pp. 324, numerous woodcuts. 



