THE NIDIOLOGIST 



23 



intelligent class of farmers become educated up to the 

 point so as to be able to distinguish one species of 

 Hawk or Owl from another, and, we may add, to also 

 appreciate the danger of exterminating some forms, 

 and thus afTord the opportunity of others to unduly 

 increase. R. VV. S. 



BiJTTIKOKKR. On a Kivision of the Genus Tiiniiniis 

 nnd the Genera Allied to it. In this timely brochure 

 the author presents us with a complete enumeration of 

 the specimens of the genus Tiinlinus and its allies con- 

 tained in the Leyden Museum, and, in his attempt to 

 obtain a more satisfactory classification of the forms 

 dealt with, goes to show the necessity of a resepara- 

 tion of the genus Malaeocineia from Tiinlinus proper. 

 \n apparently reliable "key to the genera" is sub- 

 mitted, in which arrangements are included the 

 species collected during Professor BUttikofer's recent 

 expedition in central Borneo. R. W. S. 



Bendire, On the CowHrds. Of recent years Ornith- 

 ological literature has been greatly enriched by the 

 contributions to it of Major Bendire's very full and 

 masterly pieces of work upon the Life Histories of 

 American Birds, and the one now before us is quite 

 equal to any that has thus far appeared. The paper 

 brings very completely up to date what we know of 

 the Covvbirds in general, and especially treats of 

 Moiothrus ater, j/. (7. obseuriis, Callothrus robitstus, 

 M. bonariensis, Jlf. ru/onxilciris, and J/, badiits. 

 Three excellent plates illustrate the memoir ; one be- 

 ing a nest of Dendroica astina, containing three eggs 

 of that Warbler and one of a Cowbird; the two remain- 

 ing plates are half-tone reproductions of mounted 

 museum specimens of a male and female Cowbird. 

 As " half-tones " these three plates are considerably 

 in advance of some of the work recently issued by the 

 U. S. National Museum, as. for example, many of 

 those that figured in Shufeldt's Taxidermy for Mu- 

 seums, in which instance the original pictures were 

 superb specimens of photography, but their repro- 

 ductions wretched. Too much pains cannot be exer- 

 cised in such matters, and where we now have the 

 means of making the half-tone reproduction as good 

 as the original photograph, or. even better, there is 

 no excuse as to whv it should not be done. 



Major Bendire gives it as his reason for the ap- 

 pearance of this paper at the present time that it is in 

 order to furnish the reader with some idea " of these 

 disreputable but nevertheless interesting birds," they 

 being articles written for Life L/istories of North 

 American Birds, Part II. being printed from advance 

 sheets without alteration, " excepting the addition of 

 a concise description of each species, taken from Mr. 

 R. Ridgway's Manual of North American Birds'' So 

 far as I have examined this paper at present I have 

 but one criticism to make upon it — -it is deficient in 

 points of exactness and uniformity in the arrangement 

 of matter under each article, and with the several 

 articles as compared with each other. For example, 

 the account given of Moiothrus ater is arrayed under 

 two headings, namely. ''Description" and "Geograph- 

 ical Jiange." the first being brief and to the point while 

 under the second is not only placed what is known of 

 the range of the species, but all else besides. In the 

 accounts of the M. a. obscurus and Callothrus robtistus 

 the heading "Description" has been omitted; and 

 again, in each case we find the balance of the account 

 given under "Geographical Range" In the accounts 

 of other species "■Hab.," or. in full. "Habitat," is 

 given in place of "Geographical Range;" but this may 

 be owing to the fact that the "Articles on the Cow- 

 birds found in the Argentine Republic are copied from 

 Messrs. P. L. Sclater and W. H. Hudson's work on 



Argentine Ornithology ;" \i\i\. even were this the case 



the headings in the several accounts could have been 

 made uniform, and the habits, etc., given special di- 

 visional heads, and not all have been included under 

 the "Geographical Range," as in the case of those 

 species where this has been done. But such defects 

 affect only the classical finish of a work, and by no 

 means cast doubt upon the statements given in the 

 several articles. I have every reason to believe that 

 these latter are entirely "reliable," and I am sure I 

 express the wish of every Ornithologist in this coun- 

 try when I say it is to be hoped that " The Cowbirds" 

 are to be followed by still other "advanced reprints" 

 of articles that will later appear in Part II of the Life 

 Histories of North .American Birds, a work which has 

 come into the hands of ctimparatively so very few of 

 our Ornithologists, and which from its great value 

 must soon be regarded as one of the rarest of prizes 

 in the library o fany naturalist. R. W. S. 



Luc.\s, On the Tongues of Woodpeckers. Many ex- 

 cellent figures on plates, illustrating in outline parts 

 of tongues of a great variety of species and sub- 

 species of Woodpeckers, embellish this brief, but none 

 the less very useful, anatomical article. Its author 

 gives good descriptions of these tongue parts, and, 

 after touching upon the character of the food of many 

 species of Woodpeckers and other subjects, concludes 

 by advancing the opinion that in the case of these 

 birds the " modifications of the tongue are directly 

 related to the character of the food, and are not of 

 value for classification," and it would seem that the 

 evidence presented thus far favors this view. 



R. W. S. 



Lucas, On the Weapons and Wings of Birds. When 

 one essays to write a very brief article with the view 

 of bringing together a few facts in regard to any par- 

 ticular subject, which facts are already well known to 

 naturalists, two things among others must be looked 

 to, namely, the paper must not bear too broad a title; 

 and, in the next place, the author should be even over- 

 careful to acknowledge the names of those who first 

 set the facts he attempts to compile before the world. 

 The present paper has little or nothing to do with 

 " the wings of birds " in general, and, as Mr. Lucas 

 admits in his opening paragraph, "a more accurate 

 if not a better title for this article would perhaps be. 

 'Some weapons of birds;' for the weapons to be 

 considered are mainly such as are very evidently de- 

 signed for offensive purposes, and a peacably dis- 

 posed bird might very well dispense with." Omitting 

 the consideration of an enormous list of birds pos- 

 sessed of one kind of "a weapon " or another, the 

 paper is finally " practically restricted to such [birds] 

 as carry their weapons on their wings." and the 

 compilation of a few instances of this kind has been 

 accomplished by our author, and set forth in a very 

 interesting style. He has also in several cases taken 

 the pains to give the name of the original describer 

 of any particular structure, while in too many other 

 instances it has been overlooked. As a single ex- 

 ample of this it inay be stated that the remarkable 

 modification of the radius in the forearm of the Jacanas 

 of the genus Metopidius described by Mr. Lucas was 

 probably first noticed by M. .A.. Milne-Edwards 

 {Oiseaux Tossiles, ii. p. 123). and subsequently by 

 For'oes [P. Z. S., 1881, p. 646). and surely such 

 sources and authorities should be acknowledged. 



Ornithologists will be most interested in the present 

 paper in what its author has to say about the Hoact- 

 zin and its young (Opistho-comus cristatus) and the 

 full-page plate of two of the latter is especially worthy 

 of note. R. W. S. 



