Recent Literature, 



167 



fair, however, to judge their reappearance by their original character, all 

 of them having been carefully revised and to some extent rewritten. The 

 improvement is especially manifest in the Tetraonidce, in which certain 

 misstatements required correction, and the general tenor of the description 

 of cranial characters needed to be ft-eed from some objectionable features, 

 particularly the literal interpretation of cranial bones as parts of modified 

 vertebrae. This article is furthermore in its present di-ess embellished 

 with numerous wood-cuts loaned by Baird from his " History of North 

 American Birds," and the Speotyto paper is similarly illustrated. In the 

 Grouse family, again, a good deal of matter relating to external characters, 

 and even habits and geographical distribution, is profitably introduced. 

 The lithographic plates are, we think, the same as before; 14 of the 24 

 are devoted to the four memoirs here in mention, the Tetraonidce claim- 

 ing 9 of them. 



The appearance of anatomical work on birds in this country is so rare 

 an event, and the outlook for that branch of the science, hitherto so 

 sadly neglected among us, is still so far from being all that could be 

 wished for, that these memoirs would be welcome even were their impor- 

 tance and utility less than they really are. The text is a faithful and on 

 the whole an accurate description of the objects under designation, and 

 the fidelity with which the plates are executed is most commendable. If 

 "faithful are the wounds of a friend," the author will not otherwise regard 

 some strictures which we must pass upon the work as a whole, although we 

 are well aware — no one is more thoroughly aware than ourselves! — of 

 the obstacles in the way of good scientific work which the Army delights 

 to furnish. The circumstances of preparation of most of these articles 

 made "breadth" of treatment out of the question, fostered a tendency to 

 dwell with prolixity upon non-essential minutiae, and cramped the author 

 in those comparisons and generalizations which alone put life in dry 

 bones. For the rest, we must risk being thought finical or pedantic in 

 finding fault with the literary infelicities which betray a less experienced 

 pen than we have no doubt Dr. Shufeldt will duly come to wield. For 

 instance, some one inclined to be cynical might call the following sen- 

 tence, which concludes the Tetraonidce, an example of " how not to 

 do it." 



"In short, although ornithologists will no doubt always retain these two 

 forms \_Cupidonia and Pedioecetes\ in separate genera as the classification 

 of birds goes, still it may be well to bear in mind that neai-ly or quite all 

 of the anatomical characters of Cupidonia and Pedioecetes when compared 

 together bring these two Grouse nearer to each other than any other two 

 forms of the group in our fauna ; so near, in fact, that but little violence 

 would be perpetrated by restricting them both to one and the same genus, 

 and no doubt there are not a few instances in our present classification of 

 birds where forms not so nearly related as these two Grouse are that have 

 been retained in one genus" (p. 700). 



The osteology of the CathartidcE, which occupies pp. 727-806, with 

 plates xv-xxv, and is further embellished with original wood-cuts, as 



