208 Recent Literature. [July 
three times the length of the lateral ones. The young (on which C. 
funebris is supposed to have been founded) is wholly deep black, with 
the middle tail-feathers but slightly exceeding the others in length. Such 
descriptions of course cover only half the ground, and are exceedingly 
inefficient. 
Lack of space forbids criticism of the many points in respect to syn- 
onymy and nomenclature which almost daily use of the work for several 
months has brought to light, many of which we hope to cover later in 
other connections. They do not, however, seriously detract from the 
value of the work, which in its orderly grouping of the species, the mar- 
shaling of thousands upon thousands of references to the literature of the 
subject, and the fair clews given for the recognition of the species wall 
ever render the work invaluable to all future workers in the same field.— 
JJ Bro “Xo 
Sclater and Hudson’s ‘Argentine Ornithology.’.— The second volume* 
of this excellent treatise has just appeared, completing the work. — Its 
general character having been already stated in our notice of the first 
volume (Auk, V, p. 199), it only remains to speak of the special features 
of the present one, which contains an account of all the non-Passerine 
birds found in the Argentine Republic. The high praise we gave the first 
volume is fully merited by the second. In this the biographies are in 
many instances more extended, especially in the case of several of the 
Hawks and Owls. The whole number of species recognized as belonging 
to the Argentine avifauna is 434, of which 205 are treated in the present 
volume. An important feature of the work is an annotated bibliographi- 
cal appendix, giving a list of the works and papers referred to in the body 
of the work, to which is added a list of the principal localities where col- 
lections have been made. An ‘Introduction’ of eight pages treats of the 
avifauna analytically, in reference to the numerical representation of the 
various families and orders, as compared with the Neotropical region at 
large. 
As stated in our notice of the former volume, we regret that it was 
deemed necessary to restrict the technical portions of the work to brief 
diagnoses of the adult bird, with rarely any reference to immature phases 
or other variations of plumage, since a fuller treatment of this part of the 
subject would have made the work far more useful as a handbook of 
Argentine ornithology. At page 11 of Volume II we notice a singular 
lapsus penne, the English name of Chordecles virgintanus (Gm.) being 
given as ‘‘Whip-poor-will” in the heading, while in the biographical text 
the species is referred to as ‘‘the well-known Whip-poor-will of the United 
States !” 
* Argentine Ornithology. | A | Descriptive Catalogue | of the | Birds of the Argen- 
tine Republic. | By | P. L.Sclater, M.A., Ph. D., F. R.S., Etc. | With Notes on 
their Habits | By | W. H. Hudson, C. M. Z.S., late of Buenos Ayres. | [Vignette] 
Burmeister’s Cariama. | — | Volume II. | —| London: | R. H. Porter, 18 Princes 
Street, Cavendish Square, W. | 1889.—8vo, pp. i-xxiv-+-1-251, pll. col. xi-xx. 
