Xll 



" The third leading journal in Ornithology — '' The Auk ' — 

 was established by the American Ornithologists^ Union in 

 1884, and the editorship was assigned to Prof. J. A. Allen, 

 under whose well-ordered sway it still continues. As would 

 natorally be expected, ' The Auk ' is mainly devoted to pro- 

 moting a knowledge of the Birds of the New World, aud the 

 greater number of its articles relate to what I am pleased still 

 to call the Nearctic Region, although the zoo-geographers of 

 the United States seem to have lately entered into a conspiracy 

 to abolish the use of that convenient term. Of the activity 

 and intelligent zeal of our American brethren in the cause to 

 which we are all devoted there can be no question. Owing 

 to their enthusiasm, of which ' The Auk ' itself is a product, 

 there is probably no part of the world the native birds of which 

 are now so well known as the United States of America. In 

 every part of the Union collections have been made by the 

 correspondents and emissaries of the A.O.U. aud transmitted 

 to headquarters, where the specimens have been studied and 

 the results recorded with the utmost diligence. Of late years 

 the American ornithologists have extended their researches 

 into Mexico and Central America. They have also closely 

 surveyed nearly every island of the West Indian Archipelago, 

 and have begun to make winter excursions into the northern 

 borders of South America. On looking into the 14th volume 

 of ' The Auk,' which contains the memoirs published in 1897, 

 we find articles on the birds of Mexico, Guatemala, the Kurile 

 Islands, Venezuela, and Alaska, not to speak of numerous 

 valuable contributions to the study of such questions as 

 nesting-habits, dichromacism, nomenclature, abnormal plu- 

 mages, and almost every other subject that comes within the 

 grasp of the oimithologist. I may also, perhaps, venture to 

 call special attention to the valuable criticisms on recent 

 literature given in every number of 'The Auk,' which may 

 be always read with profit, even though we may not altogether 

 coincide with the views of the writers. 



'' Having said so much about the three principal ornitho- 

 logical journals which at the present epoch are devoted to 

 general Ornithology — i. e. to the whole subject, and not to 



