THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 



249 



pointed out several of the errors it contains, 

 he has, I think, failed to place before your 

 readers its utter worthlessness as an authentic 

 work, and will, I fear, assist to spread its 

 mischievous influence rather than prevent it. 

 I need scarcely to remark that I refer entirely 

 to those portions of the book which applies to 

 the bird life of Canada, and not to that which 

 is copied from Dr. Coues' " Key to North 

 American," one of the best and most reliable 

 works ever published. Had M. Dionne been 

 content to translate the " Key," or such por- 

 tions of it as would be most useful to Cana- 

 dian students, he would have gained the well- 

 merited thanks of the French-speaking mem- 

 bers of the fraternity. 



So much of the book being of an excellent 

 character, creditable alike to M. Dionne's in- 

 dustry, skill and good judgment, it is all the 

 more to be regretted that he had not spent the 

 little additional care and labor which was re- 

 quired to make " Les Oiseaux du Canada " a 

 standard authority. But he failed to give the 

 matter the attention its importance demanded, 

 and it is due to students that they be warned 

 against accepting his statements, and also due 

 to those who may be contemplating authorship 

 that they shall be taught that they are assum- 

 ing a grave responsibility, and can not with 

 impunity publish for scientific facts an array 

 of statements drawn from their imaginations 

 or compiled with indifference to the reliability 

 of their authorities- 



M. Dionne's book exhibits clear evidence of 

 the influence of another mischievous work, 

 " The Birds of Canada," by A. M. Ross,M.D., 

 &c, &c, &c, &c. The long list of et ceteras 

 by which this author sought to impress upon 

 his readers his eminent qualifications for 

 writing a standard work did not save it from 

 being dismissed by the English " Zoological 

 Record," with this severe sentence, " The text 

 is valueless." Every one must admit that 

 such books are worse than merely "valueless," 

 for, placed in the hands of young students 

 who cannot discriminate between the good and 

 the bad which they contain, they become mis- 

 leading. This matter is of such importance 

 that I ask a little space to quote a few ex- 

 amples from these books by way of illustrating 

 their character. I will quote from both, for 

 the one is such a close imitation of the other 

 that the original must be examined to deter- 

 mine the value of the copy. 



In the first place, the titles of the books are 

 misleading, for it can not be correctly said of 



either that they contain accounts of the birds 

 of Canada as such. Dr. Ross' work refers 

 almost wholly to a part of Ontario, the few 

 references to the maritime Provinces, chiefly 

 drawn from Audubon, and the list of species 

 found in Manitoba and British Columbia, 

 which is appended to the second edition, do 

 not redeem the body of the work from its 

 purely local character, and to give it a title 

 bearing a wider significance is to handicap it 

 with a pretension which its contents will not 

 sustain, and will also cause confusion to inex- 

 perienced readers. The same remark will 

 apply with greater force to M. Dionne's work, 

 for he has mentioned only a small portion 

 of the western species, and treats them as 

 if they occurred in the Eastern Provinces, 

 having in the preface stated that he had 

 omitted the fauna of Manitoba and British 

 Columbia. 



To state, as Dr. Ross does, that the Brown 

 Thrasher "is oneof our most common birds," 

 that the House Wren "arrives from the south 

 the first week in May," that the Evening 

 Grosbeak "is a visitor," and to make no fur- 

 ther mention of the localities in which they 

 occur, in a book entitled " The Birds of 

 Canada," is calculated to create a false im- 

 pression ; for though all this may apply to 

 Ontario, it does not apply to New Brunswick 

 or Nova Scotia, as these birds have never been 

 found there. 



The only remark which M. Dionne makes 

 about the distribution of the Olive-backed 

 Thrush is " Cette espece est rare aux environs 

 de Quebec." As a matter of fact, I have 

 found this species common throughout New 

 Brunswick, at no locality more so than at 

 Madawaska, on the Quebec border ; and it is 

 also common at Lennoxville. Besides these 

 facts, we have Mi 1 . Wintle's report of its oc- 

 currence near Montreal, and .Mr. Merriam's 

 report of it being "not uncommon' 3 near the 

 Godbout; the name is on the Morden-Saim- 

 ders list of Western Ontario, and in Mr. 

 Mcll wraith's old list of Hamilton species ; Mr. 

 .1. Matthew Jones reports it common in Nova 

 Scotia, and Prof. Macon n found it in Mani- 

 toba, while it has been traced west to the 

 | Pacific slope and north to the Arctic. With 

 | such information easy of access, it is quite 

 inexcusable to imply that the only locality in 

 | which the bird is known to occur in Canada 

 is near Quebec ; and when an author will so 

 carelessly make statements which we know to 

 I be incorrect, we cannot be expected to rely 



