2>?>^ 



Recent Literature. I q" 



peckers, and numerous other species whose economic status has been 

 considered in the various 'Bulletins' and other publications of the 

 Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy. Throughout the treatise 

 the utility and economic status of the species is kept well in view, and 

 the work therefore cannot be otherwise than educational in the best sense 

 to the people of Indiana, whether as an aid in determining the species 

 or as a guide to their proper treatment. It is a hopeful omen of better 

 times, not only for the birds but for the people, that a State legislature 

 proves itself sufficiently far-sighted to place within reach of the public 

 such an admirable aid to a better knowledge of their natural surroundings. 

 As is usual in recent works on North American birds, strict adherence 

 is given to the nomenclature of the A. O. U. Check-List. — J. A. A. 



Blanford's 'Birds of British India.'' — The first two volumes of the 

 ' Birds of Britislj India,' by Mr. E. W. Oates, were published in 1883, and 

 volume III, by Dr. Blanford, in 1895 ; the present and fourth volume, also 

 by Dr. Blanford, completes the series, which furnishes us with a most 

 convenient and useful work on the Birds of British India, including 

 Ceylon and Burma. "The number of Indian birds regarded as distinct 

 species in the present work," says Dr. Blanford, " amounts to 1626." 

 " The precise number," he adds " is naturally dependent on a personal 

 factor, some writers being more liberal than others in admitting the 

 claims to specific rank of races which are distinguished by small differ- 

 ences of plumage or measurement, or which are connected by intervening 

 links with the typical form. Such races or subspecies, as they are called, 

 have not, as a rule, been separately numbered and described in the 

 present work, but they have received due notice and their characters , 

 have been explained." In other words, subspecies are not formally 

 recognized, and form no part of the 1626 species. And, as said by a 

 friendly reviewer of the work, " modern vagaries in nomenclature are 

 not usually countenanced." Linnreus is taken at 1766, and in other 

 respects the nomenclature is in accord with what this implies. 



The present volume treats of 347 species (exclusive of 10 added in the 

 appendix to those enumerated in the first three volumes'), beginning with 

 the ColumbcC and ending with the Pygopodes. About a page is devoted, 

 in the average, to each species, besides the space given to the higher 

 groups; this suffices to give the principal bibliographical references, an 



' The Fauna of British India, | including ] Ceylon and Burma, | Published 

 under the authority of the Secretary of | State for India in Council | Edited 

 by W. T. Blanford, | — | Birds,— Vol. IV. | By | W. T. Blanford, F. R. S. 



I — I London: | Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, | 

 Calcutta: I Thacker, Spink & Co. | Bombay: | Thacker & Co., Limited 



I Berlin: | R. Friedlander & Sohn, 11 Carlstrasse, ] 1S98.— Svo, pp. xxi -f- 

 500, and 127 figures in text. 



