546 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 
Messrs. Jordan and Van Vlieck publish at Appleton, Wise., in 
small 4to, a Popular Key to the Birds, Reptiles and Fishes of the 
Northern States. When the emended edition of this praiseworthy 
endeavor to unlock this portion of our fauna to students isis- 
sued — we understand a revision is contemplated — we trust we 
may be authorized by the merits of the publication to speak of it 
more highly than we can at present. 
Though somewhat foreign to our present purpose, reference iD 
this connection to Prof. Reinhardt’s continued studies on the 
osteology of Water-birds (Aft. Vid. Medd. Nat. For. Kjob., 187, 
123) may not be wholly out of place, as we are convinced of the 
particularly important bearing such investigations have upon the 
classification of the future. In the late paper referred to, the 
wing-structure of Procellariide is treated with reference to the 
presence of the one or two supplementary ossicles of ho . 
joint, developed in connection with the “ apophyse crochue” of 
the humerus, and the origin of the extensor metacarpilongus 
extensor plice alaris (tensor patigii of some authors). He | 
the bones in six genera and not in eight; but as the six ae r 
richer in species, it is present in about two-thirds the species 
the family. They are peculiar to the family, though other Lon 
pennes, as well as Alcidæ and Limicole have the humeral hook. — 
He points out their function, and proposes to divide the group 
primarily upon them. — Exuiorr Coues. | 
History or Nort American Brros.*— The announcement di 
a work on the ornithology of North America, by the above 
gentlemen, is in itself a guarantee of its interest A da 
value ; and the three volumes now published fully satisfy such ©” a 
pectations. : 
A work of this character, always welcome, is particularly ws 
tune at this time, as the need of a comprehensive s — ee 
North American Birds” has long been felt. For nearly 4%% m 
a century from the publication of Audubon’s “ Birds of i pe 
in 1844, until the present year, no such book has apposite! 
long ago as 1858, the numerous Government expeditions ©" 
*A History of North American Birds, by S. F. Baird, T. M. Brewer and B- rider 
Land Birds. 3 vols., large 8 ton, Little and Brown. q also cota 
t We exclude numerous monographs and more or less local Hem regard 0 6 
orks, which, while valuable in themselves, contain little or nothing 
d scien BY a 
