Vol. xxvii.] 4 



I venture to suggest that an Index to all the five volumes 

 might easilj'^ be prepared, and would be of very great advan- 

 tage to working Naturalists.^ 



Another good piece of work that has recently been 

 brought to a conclusion, by the issue of the fifth and last 

 Part, is Mr. Godman^s ' Monograph of the Petrels.' I 

 consider that our excellent President has done a thoroughly 

 good deed in taking up this group and carrying out the 

 original plan of the work as projected and begun by Salvin 

 and himself some years ago. Nothing is so unsatisfactory 

 as an unfinished book: it is woi"se than useless and simply 

 prevents anyone else from taking up the same subject. 

 Instead of this we have in the present case a sumptuous 

 quarto volume of 380 pages and over a hundred plates drawn 

 by Keulemans, together with an accompanying letterpress 

 which embiaces all that is known of this difficult group of 

 birds up to the present time. 



A third noteworthy ornithological product of the past 

 twelve months is the new edition of the celebrated American 

 " Check-list."' The first edition of the ' Check-list of North 

 American Birds ' was published in 1886, the second in 1895, 

 and the third a few months ago. Like the two former 

 editions of the List, the third has been prepared by a Com- 

 mittee of the American Ornithologists' Union, consisting of 

 some of the best known and most capable American Orni- 

 thologists, with Dr. J. A. Allen, of New York, as their 

 Chairman. It is not necessary, and, indeed, would be quite 

 out of place, to enter into any criticisms of it on the present 

 occasion. It is sufficient to say that the nomenclature of 

 the last edition of the Check-list was nearly universally 

 adopted by American writers on birds, and that I have little 

 doubt that the third edition will meet with the same 

 favourable rece})tion, although it would seem that some 

 serious alterations have been made in it. But I could not 

 conscientiously say that I should like to see the American 

 canons of nomenclature adopted by the British Ornitho- 

 logists' Union, for I cannot at all agree with many of them. 

 * [This index is ah-eady being prepared. — Ed.] 



