REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 419 
sometimes causing them to fall almost in pieces of their own 
weight. The present writer, although having had the care of one 
of the largest collections of skins in this county for over ten years, 
has never yet found it necessary to bake a skin to rid it of insects, 
having accomplished it by other means. Drenching a skin in 
the best quality of benzine is far preferable to baking, but this 
is objectionable from its sometimes (generally only after several 
applications) leaving a sticky residuum on the plumage. A 
better process is that of thorough fumigation with the bi-sulphide 
of carbon, which may be accomplished without the offensiveness 
of the fumes being very apparent by using a tight fumigating 
box or chest made expressly for this purpose. 
The “Check List,” though bound with the Manual, is essen- 
tially a distinct publication, being also issued separately. It is 
intended for use in labelling collections, and is hence printed on 
only one side of the paper. The two together form a supplement 
to the Key, of which they were originally intended to form a part. 
The “Check List” is a publication of more importance than to some 
its name might seem to imply. It is based, the author tells us, 
on the Key, and “reflects exactly whatever of truth or error that 
work represents.” It differs quite materially from the Smithsonian 
Check List, published in 1858, as it very naturally should, in 
order to properly represent the present state of ornithological 
science in this country. Its greatest modification pertains, per- 
haps, to the system of nomenclature itself, through the introduc- 
tion of varietal names. This, the recent advances in American 
ornithology have rendered imperatively necessary for the proper 
recognition of the numerous intergrading forms which result from 
different conditions of environment. But, aside from this, the 
present list differs from the former in containing much fewer gen- 
eric names; in embracing some fifty species added to the North 
American fauna since 1858, and in the exclusion of about 150 
of the specific names of the former list, from their being ‘* extra- 
Jimital, invalid or otherwise untenable,” though a large proportion 
of them still appear in the varietal designations. As already 
indicated, the ‘Check List” is a reproduction of the names used 
in the Key, with, however, the addition of authorities for both the 
Specific and varietal names, including not only the name of the 
describer of the species’ or variety, but also the authority for the 
present association of the names in question. It also includes 
