NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 319 
The plan of the work is to give, as far as possible, after 
the English and scientific names of each species a very full 
synonymy, with a reference to notable figures, followed by the 
French, German, and native names by which the bird is known 
in its real home, and a list of localities where it has been met 
with. This is followed by a description of the male, female, and 
young (if known), and an account, so far as can be given, of its 
habits, nidification, and distribution. The number of pages 
devoted to each species varies according to its rarity or otherwise, 
and extends from two to four or five pages, accompanied by a 
coloured plate, drawn and lithographed by Mr. Frohawk. 
It has become the fashion of late years in monographs of this 
kind to work out the synonymy to an extent that is perfectly 
appalling, and in our judgment wholly unnecessary. In the case 
of a bird which is comparatively little known, or concerning whieh 
little has been previously published, it is doubtless convenient to 
give references to those authors who have written upon it, but in 
the case of such well-known species as the Java Sparrow, the 
Virginian Cardinal, and the common House Sparrow, it seems to 
us preposterous to print three or four quarto pages of synonymy, 
including references to the most ordinary text-books with which 
every ornithologist should be familiar, and to trifling allusions 
in papers of no particular value. Pages thus filled are quite 
unreadable, and, considering the cost of printing, would be more 
useful if devoted to other and more important points in the bird’s 
history. As they stand, they are of no great use to scientists 
who know where to look for such information if required, and 
cannot be of interest to the general reader. When we say that 
the synonymy in this case is overdone, we indicate what appears to 
us to be a fault in Mr. Bartlett’s work, though doubtless this, after 
all, is a matter of opinion. In other respects, the author is to 
be congratulated upon the way in which he has brought together 
such information as he has been able to collect concerning the 
life-history of every species of Finch and Weaver-bird included 
in his Monograph. 
From a study of the localities in which the Virginian Cardinal 
has been obtained, Mr. Bartlett finds that the distribution from 
north to south, and east to west, covers about 3,698,000, or 
nearly 4,000,000 square miles; in this area the bird becomes very 
variable in size and colour, the more southern forms being the 
