480 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 
published or in prospect, is doubtless that recently announced by 
Messrs. Little, Brown and Co., of Boston. This will be an 
entirely original work, prepared by Professor S. F. Baird, Assistant 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, with the coöperation of 
Dr. T. M. Brewer of Boston and Mr. Robert Ridgway of Illinois. 
The well known scientific attainments of these gentlemen will 
warrant the’ public in anticipating a thorough treatment of 
the subject, since their facilities are unequalled and their ability 
unquestionable. That such a work is at present greatly needed 
must be apparent to every one at all familiar with the sub- 
ject, since our latest general treatise on the habits of the birds of 
this continent is that of Audubon, published nearly a third of a 
century ago, when the vast regions north of Canada and west of 
the Missouri River weré almost a terra incognita, especially in 
respect to ornithology. Fourteen years have also passed since the 
publication of the last general work on the technical ornithology 
of this country, during which interval our knowledge of the sub- 
ject has vastly increased. In addition to an exhaustive treatment 
of the technical portion of the science, the present work will comam 
full biographies of the species, including a large amount of yei 
nal matter. As announced in the prospectus, the object of ua 
work “is to give a complete account of the birds of the whole of : 
North America, north of Mexico, arranged according to the most i 
approved system of modern classification, and with descriptions 
which, while embodying whatever is necessary to the prope ae 
nition of the species and their varieties, in as simple languag? pë 
possible, exclude all unnecessary technicalities and irrelev e 
matter.” The work is said to be in an advanced stage of mE i 
tion, the first volume being promised by the Ist of December, | E 
be followed by others during the winter, the whole to be comprised 
in a series of probably four volumes, the land birds perhaps 
pying three; all the volumes will be profusely illustrate® — 
illustrations are to consist of a series of outlines of the wae of 
_ bill and feet of each genus, with a series of full length wa a 
one species of each genus, in addition to a series of plates. ‘thet 
_ Work is to be furnished in two editions, one plain and u feel 
With the plates carefully colored by hand. The pabi å 
justified in promising a work that in many respects of’ 7 
marked an advance beyond its predecessors as was that and 
bon; and that in typographical excellence and in the accuracy * 
