THE ZooLocist—Avcust, 1876. 5013 
Slotices of Set Books, 
——— 
The Birds of the North-West: a Handbook of the Ornithology 
of the Region drained by the Missouri River and its Tribu- 
taries. By Exutor Covers, Captain and Assistant-Surgeon 
United States Army. Demy 8yo, 791 pp. 1874. 
SINCE the time when the indefatigable John James Audubon 
was scouring America for subjects for his pencil the study of 
American Ornithology has been keenly pursued. So great is the 
number of species in the rich Avifauna of the Western Hemisphere 
that even to-day the ground is very far from exhausted, and the 
‘ labours of ornithologists who may chance to be posted at some 
outlying station are still rewarded by the discovery of new species 
or of interesting hitherto-unknown habits of species already 
recorded. Wilson and Audubon knew only of two humming- 
birds visiting North-America; to-day eleven at least have been 
recognised, and observation will probably extend the list. Two 
years ago Dr. Elliot Coues, of the U.S. army, contributed a very 
important addition to the published works on American birds. 
His book was brought out at Washington at the Government 
Printing Press by the Geological Survey of the U.S. Territories, 
under the title of ‘The Birds of the North-West,’ and comprises 
a notice of all the birds detected as resident in or visiting the 
immense tract of country drained by the Missouri River and its 
tributaries, as well as monographs of the North-American Laride, 
Colymbidz and Podicipide. It contains 790 closely-printed pages, 
and is full of observations of great interest on the habits and 
distribution of numerous American birds. Dr. Coues is fortunate 
not only in being a good observer himself, and one able to set down 
his observations in a lucid style, but also in having the advantage 
of several correspondents who, to judge from the extracts from 
their letters given in the Doctor’s book, must be keen and able 
students of bird-life. The book is thus an ample treasury of 
information to the lover of birds, and we shall make no scruple to 
quote rather largely from its pleasant pages. 
Like many recent writers on Ornithology, Dr. Coues is something 
of a systematist, and prefers to place the Passerine birds in the 
front of all the others, beginning with the Oscines, or singing 
SECOND SERIES—VOL, XI. 20 
