Vol. XIV 
857 Recent Literature. 3 29 
The first paper ostensibly by Bendire may be that on the nest and eggs 
of Clark’s Crow, in Bull. Nutt. Club, I, 1876, pp. 44, 45, though this is 
actually written by Dr. Allen from Bendire’s MS. The first formally and 
actually by him may be that on the Birds of Oregon, in Pr. Bost. Soc. 
Nat. Hist. XX, 1877, pp. 109-149. For a note on his introduction to 
ornithological print see The Osfrey, Apr., 1897, p. 113.—ELLIoTT 
Coures, Washington, D. C. \ 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
Ridgway’s Birds of the Galapagos Archipelago.!'— The Galapagos 
Archipelago has come to be classic ground in ornithology. In the 
present paper of over two hundred pages Mr. Ridgway treats the subject 
exhaustively, so far as available material and previous work permits. Yet 
it is evident that the field is as yet far from thoroughly worked. From 
some of the sixteen islands that compose the group only scant material 
has been obtained. Says Mr. Ridgway: ‘‘Not a single island of the 
group can be said to have been exhaustively explored, and few of the 
species are known in all their various phases; in fact, many are known 
only from a few specimens in female or immature dress. No observations 
have been made ‘upon the attitude the different species of Geospiza 
maintain toward one another tending to show how far the differences 
observable, or thought to be observable, in dried specimens indicate the 
actual grouping in species of living individuals. The anomaly of 
individuals adult as to plumage but with bills suggesting immaturity, 
and of others which show exactly the reverse, remains to be explained ; 
and there are other questions which only protracted field-studies by a 
competent investigator can decide. Until all these present mysteries are 
solved, theories and generalizations are necessarily futile.” 
Regarding the origin of the Galapagoan fauna, Mr. Ridgway considers 
that the time has not yet arrived when theorizing may be indulged in 
' with any great degree of confidence. He notices briefly the two leading 
theories respecting the origin of the Galapagos group of islands — 
namely, the old and formerly generally received conception that they are 
1Birds of the Galapagos Archipelago. By Robert Ridgway, Proc. U. S. 
National Museum, Vol. XIX, No. 1116, pp. 459-670, pll. lvi, lvii, with 7 cuts 
and numerous distribution charts in the text. Dated 1896; issued March, 1897. 
42 
