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REVIEWS 



A'New Color Guide* 



A new color guide by Dr. Robert Ridgway, the well-known 

 ornithologist, is practically an entirely revised and much en- 

 larged edition of his earlier nomenclature of colors (1886) with 

 17 plates and 186 colors as against 53 plates and 1,115 colors in 

 the present work. The color work was done by A. Hoen & Co., 

 of Baltimore and is much more uniform in different copies than 

 in the earlier edition, which was hand stenciled from several 

 mixings of the same color; while in the present work each color 

 for the whole edition of 5,000 copies was prepared from one lot 

 of color and uniformly coated at one time. While the present 

 work does not contain quite as many colors as are included in the 

 more bulky French work by Rene Oberthur, the gradation be- 

 tween colors is more uniform, and the colors are on dull instead 

 of glossy-surfaced paper as in that work, which gives a slightly 

 different, but more natural color effect, and no metallic color 

 effects are included. The proportion of darker broken colors is 

 greater, which will appeal especially to the ornithologist and 

 mammalogist, although the work is designed to be equally 

 useful to botanists, florists, artists, dyers, merchants, and 

 chemists who require a standard color scheme. The colors have 

 evidently been standardized to a degree of accuracy not hitherto 

 attained in any color chart. The colors are one half by one 

 inch, arranged on a heavy gray paper in three vertical columns 

 of 7 colors each. The plates are divided into 6 series. In 

 plates I-XII the middle row of horizontal colors represents the 

 36 colors and hues most readily distinguished in the spectrum, 

 although it is said to be possible to distinguish 1,000. Above 

 these colors each succeeding horizontal row of colors is the 

 spectrum color mixed with 9.5; 22.5; and 45 per cent of white. 

 Below they are mixed with 45 ; 70.5 and 87.5 per cent of black. 

 Plates XIII-XXVI represent the colors in plates I-XII dulled 

 by 32 per cent of neutral gray; plates XXXII-XXXVIII are 



* Color Standards and Color Nomenclature. By Robert Ridgway, (3447 Oak- 

 wood Terrace, N. W.) Washington. Published by the author 1913. Pp. 1-44; 

 pis. I-LIir. S8.00. 



