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1876.] Progress of Ornithology in the United States. 543 
matter with much previously published in scattered papers, and 
the fullest tables of bibliographical references for the larger part 
of the birds of North America that has yet appeared, it is a 
work of the highest value to students of American ornithology. 
Mr. Henshaw’s work (Chapter III. of vol. v. of the Reports 
of the Geological and Geographical Surveys West of the One 
Hundredth Meridian, under Lieut. G. M. Wheeler) is limited to 
the actual work of the Wheeler Survey, of which it presents a 
general systematic summary, based on the collections and field- 
hotes made chiefly by the author and Drs. Yarrow and Rothrock, 
and Messrs. Bischoff and Aiken, and is hence made up wholly of 
original matter, adding largely to our knowledge of the orni- 
thology of this previously little-known region. It is accompanied 
by fifteen chromo-lithographie plates of previously unfigured spe- 
cies and varieties, and embraces about five hundred quarto pages 
of text, 
WORKS AND PAPERS OF A SPECIAL OR LOCAL CHARACTER. 
; The long list of general works by no means comprises all the 
important contributions made by Americans to North American 
ornithology, The special papers, many of them of a high scien- 
tific value, are too numerous to be mentioned even by name 
within the limits of the present paper. These number several 
hundred, varying in length from a few pages to hundreds each. 
hile a considerable proportion are limited to the descriptions 
of a few new or little-known species, or to the enumeration of 
the species found at particular localities, others are exhaustive 
monographs of genera or families, or are devoted to a discussion 
n general questions of nomenclature, of the geographical distri- 
bution of the species, or of laws of geographical variation. 
Of papers of a strictly local character may be mentioned 
the Rey, W.B. O. Peabody’s Report on the Birds of Massachu- 
setts (Fishes, Reptiles, and Birds of Massachusetts, 1839) ; 
«dock Thompson’s chapter on the Birds of Vermont (Natural, 
Civil, and Statistical History of Vermont, 1842); J. P. Giraud’s 
Birds of Long Island (8vo, 1844) ; Dr. J. E. Dekay’s Report on 
the Birds of New York (New York Zodlogy, Part II., one vol. 
to, with colored plates, 1844); E. A. Samuels’ Birds of New 
ngland (8yo, pp. 600, 1867); C. J. Maynard’s Birds of 
Florida (now publishing in parts); and T. G. Gentry’s Life- 
t of the Birds of Eastern Pennsylvania (vol. i., 1876), 
è two latter still in course of publication. Linsley’s Catalogue 
