542 Progress of Ornithology in the United States. (September, 
tageous to the student, the work being intended as a manual of 
~ the ornithology of the whole region west of the Rocky Mountains 
north of Mexico. 
The next general work on North American birds is Dr. Elliott 
Coues’s Key to North American Birds (one volume, quarto, with 
upwards of 250 wood-cuts and six steel plates), published in 
October, 1872. This highly useful and deservedly popular work 
is unique in ornithological literature, being a manual of the 
birds of North America, designed especially for the use of stu- 
dents, in which are introduced analytical tables for the deter- 
mination of the species, similar in character to those so success- 
fully adopted in botanical text-books. This was followed, in 
1874, by the same author's Field Ornithology and Check-List of 
North American Birds, intended as a supplement to the Key, 
the first part being a “ manual of instruction for procuring, pre- 
paring, and preserving birds,” and the latter, as its title implies, 
a * check-list ” of the species. 
By far the most important recent work on North American 
ornithology, however, is the joint work of Prof. S: E. Baird, 
Dr. T. M. Brewer, and Mr. Robert Ridgway, published under 
the title of Birds of North America. The first three volumes 
of this indispensable work, embracing the land-birds, appeared in 
1874, the portion relating to the water-birds being still in course 
of preparation. The more technical portion is the joint work of 
Professor Baird and Mr. Ridgway, while the biographical por- 
tion is written by Dr. Brewer. This work, it is needless to say; 
represents the most advanced views of our best authors, and 
must long remain the leading authority on the subject of North 
American ornithology. It is illustrated with five hundred and 
ninety-three wood-cuts, devoted largely to the external anatomy, 
and sixty-four colored plates giving life-size figures of the heads 
of the greater part of the species and varieties. Later works 
possessing a general character are Dr. Elliott Coues’s Birds 0 
the Northwest (1874), and Mr. H. W. Henshaw’s recent Report 
(1875) upon the ornithological work of the Survey of the Terri- 
tories West of the One Hundredth Meridian. The first of these 
is an octavo of nearly eight hundred pages, forming No. 2 of we 
Miscellaneous Publications of Dr. F. V. Hayden’s Geolog! 
Survey of the Territories. The work is intended a : 
of the region drained by the Missouri River and its tributaries, 
and hence embraces a wide field. Giving as it does & summ 
of the ornithology of this extensive region, combinin 
g much new : 
