226 



SCIEi\ CE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 371. 



observes: "Anyone who has had occasion to 

 verify citations must know that the amount of 

 inaccuracy and misrepresentation in current 

 synonymies, even the most authoritative and 

 elaborate, is simply astounding. They abound 

 with names which do not even exist in the 

 works cited, with those which do not corre- 

 spond with the originals in orthography, with 

 others that have no use or meaning whatever, 

 being evidently culled from^ indices without 

 reference to what their status may be on the 

 pages indicated." 



■In matters of nomenclature the author has 

 followed the American Ornithologists' Union 

 'Code of Nomenclature,' which has 'been 

 strictly adhered to in all respects.' He has, 

 however, reached different conclusions, in a 

 few cases, regarding the status of certain 

 forms, from those of the A. O. U. Committee. 

 Considering the large amount of time he has 

 been able to give to such points, aided by 

 access to all of the available material, the 

 benefit of the doubt may be safely permitted 

 to rest with Mr. Eidgway, till some equally 

 competent expert, with superior resources, re- 

 verses his conclusions. 



The 20 plates give outline figures of the 

 bill, feet, tail and wings of each genus treated, 

 and are thus a valuable aid to the student. 

 The work in all its details shows the author's 

 characteristic and well-known thoroughness of 

 treatment, and ornithologists the world over 

 will wish him health and strength to complete 

 the enormous undertaking involved in the prep- 

 aration of the 'Birds of North and Middle 

 America.' 



J. A. A. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



The American Naturalist for January be- 

 gins with an article on 'Prehistoric Hafted 

 Flint Knives,' by Charles C. Willoughby, de- 

 scribing various forms of these implements ; 

 Douglas H. Campbell discusses 'The Affini- 

 ties of Certain Anomalous Dicotyledons' and 

 J. H. Comstock and Chujiro Kochi present a 

 long and careful study of ' The Skeleton of the 

 Head of Insects,' using the known facts of 

 embryology to give a clearer idea of the struc- 

 ture of the head, attention being mainly given 



to representatives of the more generalized or- 

 ders of insects. The article is well illustrated 

 and a long list of references is appended. E. 

 W. Shtifeldt contributes a paper 'On the Hab- 

 its of the Kangaroo Eats in Captivity,' and 

 under the title 'A Contribution to Museum 

 Technique' S. E. Meek describes the method 

 of mounting fishes for exhibition in flat jars, 

 the specimens being hardened in alcohol, then 

 painted with water-colors and then replaced in 

 alcohol. 



The Plant World for December, 1901, con- 

 tains 'Farther Notes on. Trees of Cuba,' by 

 Valery Havard, with a fine plate of the silk 

 cotton tree; 'Notes on the Pan-American, 

 Exposition,' by Pauline Kaufman, in which 

 we are sorry to see an account of a 'petrified 

 body'; 'The Flora of Snow Canon, Cali- 

 fornia,' by S. B. Parish, besides the customary 

 Briefer Articles, Notes and Eeviews. In the 

 Supplement Charles L. Pollard continues the 

 description of the families of the order Parie- 

 tales. 



The Museums Journal, of Great Britain, 

 contains a brief biographical sketch of Dr. 

 Henry Woodward, who has just retired from 

 the keepership of the department of geology in 

 the British Museum. J. G. Goodchild de- 

 scribes, under 'Astronomical Models in Mu- 

 seums,' a practical orrery on a rather large 

 scale devised by him for the Edinburgh Mu- 

 seum of Science and Art, and D. P. H. dis- 

 cusses 'Hygiene as a Subject for Museum 

 Illustration,' giving an outline of the method 

 and objects of such an exhibit. There are a 

 few short articles and numerous notes on Mu- 

 seums in various parts of the world. 



The American Museum Journal for Novem- 

 ber-December continues L. P. Gratacap's paper 

 on 'The Development of the American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History,' and deals with the 

 department of vertebrate palaeontology. Other 

 articles deal with recent work of the Museum, 

 and the number has a well-illustrated supple- 

 ment on 'The Saginaw Valley Collection,' by 

 Harlan I. Smith, which is to serve as a visitors' 

 handbook. 



Following the death of Dr. Charles Henry 

 Brown, the former proprietor of the Journal 



