550 Recent Literature. [September, 
though looked upon with strong disfavor by our transatlantic 
fellow-workers, who seem as yet not fully to understand the 
nature of the recent rapid advance ornithology has made in 
this country, or to appreciate the thoroughly substantial nature 
of the evidence on which it is based. The constant. and energetic 
exploration of the great North and Northwest, of the vast trans- 
Mississippian region, and of our sub-tropical borders, during the 
last two decades, by scores of indefatigable collectors and observ- 
ers, has certainly not been in vain, as witness the hundreds and 
often thousands of specimens of single species, representing the 
gradually varying phases presented at hundreds of localities, that 
have passed through the hands of our specialists. 
While the field of North American ornithology is far from an 
exhausted one, the progress made during little more than a half 
century is certainly creditable to American enterprise and to 
American students, though to Americans alone, of course, be- 
longs only a share of the credit of the marked advancement. 
In a short article like the present, devoted exclusively to what 
Americans have accomplished, justice can hardly be done to all, 
nor is there room to more than allude to the fact that much has 
been done in aid of the general advance by numerous foreign 
writers. By no means have all the names of even Americans 
that are deserving of recognition here, been mentioned in the 
present article, nor have all articles been cited that are entitled 
to a high degree of prominence; the omissions, however, arè 
those of limitation and not of choice. Neither is there space to 
notice the several important ornithological collections that have 
been gathered, to which alone many pages might be profitably 
evoted. 
ices 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
Orton’s Comparative ZoéLocy. — The plan of this book is excel- 
lent, and the distribution of the various subjects well carried out. The 
first half of the book is devoted to comparative anatomy and physiology: 
containing chapters with titles such as these: Plants and Animals oe 
then, but not often, we notice a slip of the pen, as 
1 Comparative Zodlogy, Structural and Systematic. For Use in Schoo s oo 
leges. By James Orton, A. M. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1876. 
pp. 396. 
Js and Col- 
