56 



Receni Literature. [January 



These recent issues fully maintain the high order of excellence to which 

 we have .already called attention. We trust that the work is receiving 

 a generous patronage. — W, B. 



A Checking-list of North American Birds. — We have received 

 proofs of the Checking-list advertised bj Messrs. Southwick and Jencks in 

 the present number of this Bulletin. It is essentially a reprint of the 

 numbers and English names used in Mr. Ridgway's late Nomenclature of 

 North American Birds, with the addition of species and varieties since 

 described or found within our limits. Everyone who has made extensive 

 exchanges knows what a task it is to write out the necessary lists of dupli- 

 cates and desiderata, while the alternative of using a list of numbers 

 corresponding with those of one of the standard check-lists, is, if any- 

 thing, worse. The present list is designed to remedy both evils. It is to 

 be printed in small type and will occupy only two sheets of thin paper. 

 We are sorry to see that the scientific names have been omitted, but 

 this, doubtless, was unavoidable in the preparation of a sheet that is to be 

 sold for two cents, nor is their absence likelj' to be regretted by the class 

 of persons for whom the list is presumably intended. — W. B. 



Shufeldt's Contributions to the Anatomy of Birds.* — This 

 paper reaches us too late for anything but the briefest notice. It includes 

 chapters on the osteology of Speotyto cuninctilaria hypogcRa^ Eremophila 

 alpestris, the North American Tetraonidce, and the Cathnrtidce. These 

 subjects have been already treated bj' Dr. Shufeldt in previous papers, 

 upon which the present work is evidently based; but its subject-matter hjis 

 been largely, if not entirety rewritten, and some unfortunate errors con- 

 tained in earlier issues corrected. The text is illustrated hy numerous 

 wood-cuts, some of which are apparently new, while others Avill be recog- 

 nized by those who are at all familiar with the "History of North American 

 Birds." The presence of these figures in a work on osteology seems to 

 us about as appropriate as would be that of illustrations of the character- 

 istic scenes frequented by the birds under discussion. Such a stricture, 

 however, will not apply to the full-page lithographs by Sinclair & Son, 

 for these acceptably present the crania and other osteological character- 

 istics of the species treated. The paper on the Cathartidce with its 

 accompanying plates, is entirely new matter. — W. B. 



* Contributions to the Anatomy of Birds. By R. W. Shufeldt, M. D., Captain, Med- 

 ical Department, U. S. A., member of the Philosophical, Anthropological, and Biologi- 

 cal Societies of Washington, Honorary Curator of the Section of Avian Osteology of 

 the Smithsonian Institution. Twelfth Ann. Rep. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv., F. V. 

 Hayden, U. S. Geologist-in-charge. 1882, pp. 593-806. Plates I to XXIV. Cuts in text. 



