IS84.1 Recent Litcrutiirc. -583 



whole been the subject of detuiled systematic treatment since tiie pul)licii- 

 tion of Baird's 'Report' in 1858. In tiiis work the treatment was purely tech- 

 nical, so that we must go back to Audubon before we find the same general 

 handling of the subject from the biographical standpoint. Therefore the 

 need of a work of the character and scope of the present one has long been 

 felt, and impatiently awaited. Its delay, as is well known, has been due 

 to the diniculty of securing a publisher who would undertake the pe- 

 cuniary risk of so expensive an undertaking. Consequently ornithologists 

 have great reason to be grateful to Professor J. D. Whitney, through 

 whose interest in the work, and the generous cooperation of Mr. Alexan- 

 der Agassiz, is due its final appearance. Through these combined influ- 

 ences the work, from the bibliographical point of view, has rather com- 

 plex relations. Primarily it forms volumes XII and XIII of the 'Mem- 

 oirs' of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. It also is complementary 

 to the 'Land Birds' of the California Geological Survey, Professor J. 

 D. Whitney, State Geologist, and to 'A History of North American Birds : 

 Land Birds,' by the authors of the present volumes, of which work it is 

 virtually a continuation. It has also its own separate title of 'The Water 

 Birds of North America.' Professor Whitney, in the 'Introduction' to the 

 present work, explains in detail this complicated relationship, and the cir- 

 cumstances to which it is due. As regards the method of illustration, the 

 work is uniform with the 'Land Birds' of the California Survey, the nu- 

 merous wood-cuts being inserted in the text, and colored by hand (in the 

 colored copies), instead of being in part grouped in plates and colored by 

 chromo-hthography, as was the case in the three volumes of the 'History 

 of North American Birds.' 



In regard to the text of the 'Water Birds,' the technical part, although 

 originally written some years since, has been brought down with the fullest 

 detail, and with even more than Mr. Ridgway's usual care, to the date of 

 printing; the biographical part remains as left by Dr. Brewer at the time 

 of his death in January, 18S0, and is therefore practically nearly five years 

 behind the date of publication. This is certainly unfortunate, in view of 

 the recent rapid increase of our knowledge of the habits and distribution 

 of our water birds, particularly the marine species, but under the circum- 

 stances of publication this appears to have been nearly unavoidable. 



The water birds are divided into, first 'A. Waders,' and 'B. Swimmers,' 

 '•for the convenience of the student," and tentatively further subdivided 

 into the following nine 'orders': I', Herodiones; II, Limicolae ; III, Alec- 

 torides; IV, Phoenicopteri ; V, Anseres ; VI, Steganopodes ; VII, Lon- 

 gipennes ; VIII, Tubinares : X, Pygopodes. Not onlj' are the characters 

 of the Higher groups quite fully given, but there are analytical keys to 

 the minor groups, as well as to the species and subspecies. The diag- 

 noses and descriptive matter are ample ; extremes and averages of measure- 

 ments of often large series of specimens are usually given, and also special 

 attention to the matter of individual as well as geographical variation. 

 In short, it is suificient to say that the technical matter, though condensed, 

 is adrairablv presented. 



