64 



Recent Literature. Ft 



LJan. 



After what we have said in 'The Auk' regarding Mr. Elliot's 'Shore 

 Birds,' it will suffice to inform our special clientele that ' Game Birds' is 

 constructed in precisely the same fashion ; the subject is changed but not 

 the mode of treatment, and the two books form companion volumes 

 which every sportsman, and all others whom Mr. Elliot describes upon 

 his title page, will delight to possess. If the present work somewhat 

 outstrips the former one in popularity, it will probably be because more 

 persons go into the dry woods and fields than into the " demnition moist, 

 unpleasant" haunts of the Limicolce. Mr. Elliot is happy in giving a for- 

 mal didactic treatise, satisfactory to the technical expert, an entertaining 

 turn that will make his reputation as a popular writer. Amateurs can 

 always amuse one another, but it takes a professional who knows a great 

 deal to write for people who do not known much in the way they ought 

 to be written for. What the public ought to want is seldom what that 

 huge blundering collective animal does want; and he is a wise man who 

 knows how to take the creature by the ear and keep out of the way of its 

 business end — its heels. 



Thus implying if not expressing all that need be conveyed in general 

 regarding the present work, we turn to some particularities which we 

 should hardly bring up if we were not writing in a journal mainly occu- 

 pied with technicalities. The Turkey Qiiestion which we lately raised 

 (Auk, July, 1897, pp. 272-275) seems to have exercised the author's patience, 

 but he falls in line with our contention that g'alloJ>avo belongs to the Mex- 

 ican species, and adopts sylvestris for the U. S. bird. This is a point of 

 variance from the A. O. U. Check-List but in strick conformity with the 

 A. O. U. Code ; the change must be made in our next edition. We 

 should be sorry to see M. sylvestris ellioti disappear from our list, but 

 believe its proper name to be M. s. intermedia., for reasons which will 

 be apparent on looking up Sennett's record of 1879. There are, no 

 doubt, too many Ptarmigan in the book; Mr. Elliot says so, expressly, as 

 on p. 149; but by a device which we are hardly free to criticise, because 

 we have resorted to it ourselves too often, such a form as Allen's Ptarmi- 

 gan is capitally affirmed and textually denied. One who will study the 

 latest British Museum Catalogue of these birds will be inclined to sus- 

 pect that the A. O. U. list of Ptarmigan is shaky in some other case or 

 cases. We are pleased to find the author agreeing with us (Auk, June, 

 1897, p. 214) on the generic validity of Lophortyx, ^h.\z\\. the A. O. U. 

 were ill-advised to degrade from its long-accustomed rank. Another 

 good point Mr. Elliot scores is insistence upon the generic distinction' 

 between Dejidragafus and Canachites — surely he should know what 

 he meant himself when he founded the former genus more than 30 years 

 ago. As we have remarked elsewhere (Science, July 2, 1897, p. 10), Den- 

 dragapus was founded for the express purpose of distinguishing certain 

 Grouse from cei'tain other Grouse ; and for us to use it for the opposite 

 purpose from that intended by its founder " is simply nomenclatural 



