382 Recent Liferature. [October 



for certain West Indian birds. They also occasionally crept into Mr. 

 Lawrence's papers in 1871. At this time (1S64-1S71), as Dr. Stejne- 

 ger observes, "trinomials were in the air infecting all." In 1S72 the 

 system of trinomials for geographical races, or subspecies, may be said, 

 however, to have been first formally avowed and adopted, having been 

 used systematically by Coues, Ridgway, and Allen, in papers or works 

 published during that year — by the latter in a paper* published in July, 

 by Dr. Coues in his 'Key,' published in October, and by Mr. Ridgway 

 in a paperf published in December. They had also been adopted by the 

 authors of the 'History of North American Birds,' the greater part of the 

 first volume of which was put in type during 1872, J although the work 

 was not published till January, 1874. 



Dr. Stejneger also calls attention to the chief objection to trinomialism 

 which has thus far been raised, namely its liability to abuse by indiscreet 

 authors, and arrives at the conclusion that this danger is not very formi- 

 dable; it being found by actual count that as regards North American 

 birds described between 1871 and 1881, that "the percentage of the unten- 

 able trinomials is vastly smaller than that of the binomials," and that if 

 trinoinials had not come into use several of the forms described under 

 trinomials would have entered the list of synonjans as pure binomials. 



Finally Dr. Stejneger takes up and very ably answers the questions, 

 "(i) Is it necessary to recognize those slight difterences which are seen 

 in the so-called local races.? (2) Is it necessary to have them designated 

 by a separate name '^ (3) Why is the trinomial designation to be preferred .'"' 

 Those who may still have doubts on these points would do well to 

 carefully weigh the replies Dr. Stejneger gives to these questions. —J. A. A. 



Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway's Water Birds of North America. § — The 

 publication of the long-looked-for 'Water Birds of North America,' by 

 Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, is tke event of the year 1884 in the history 

 of North American ornithology. Beyond the necessarily brief treatment 

 bestowed upon the group by Dr. Coues in the two editions of his 'Key,' 

 the Water Birds of North America, while by no means wholly neglected, 

 especially as regards their nomenclature and classification, have not as a 



* 'Orn. Reconn.' etc., in Bull. M. C. ZooL, III, pp. 113-183, July, 1882. See espec- 

 ially p. 119, where the use of varietal names is formally advocated, and 'this method' 

 stated to be 'already in more or less common use.' 



t 'On the Relation between Color and Geographical Distribution in Birds,' etc., in 

 Am. Joiirn. Sci. and Arts (3) IV, pp. 454 et seq., Dec, 1872. 



+ Cf. Am. Journ. Sci. and Arts (3) IV, p. 457. 



\ Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, Vols. XII 

 and XIII. The Water Birds of North America. By S. F. Baird, T. M. Brewer, and R. 

 Ridgway. Issued in continuation of the publications of the Geological Survey of Cali- 

 fornia. J. D. Whitney, State Geologist: Boston. Little, Brown, and Company, 1884. 2 

 vols. 4to. with numerous illustrations in the text. (Vol. I, pp. i-ix, 1-537, June, 1884; 

 Vol. II, pp. i-vi, 1-552, August, 1884.) Issued with both plain and colored plates. 



