i879-1 
Notices of Books. 
369 
student upon the facts, the phenomena described, and for that 
very reason to burden his memory as little as possible with words. 
Too many professors seem to be of the very opposite opinion. 
The slightest excuse is enough to justify the introduction of a 
new term. This tendency is particularly to be regretted in the 
present day. The division of labour, which has rendered such 
invaluable services in the industrial arts, assuredly must and 
will extend to the realms of science and learning. We have 
already numbers of eager students in biology who know “ little 
Latin and less Greek,” and their number will assuredly increase. 
Why, then, should treatises be written which such men cannot 
understand — if at all — without great loss of time? Prof. Mac- 
alister — who is neither the only, nor perhaps the greatest, sinner 
— seems conscious that his terminology is open to criticism. He 
remarks, in his Preface, that it is “ impossible to write a strictly 
scientific treatise in popular language without increasing its bulk 
proportionally.” Had we time we think we could undertake to 
render his book, not indeed into “ popular language,” but still 
into language such as a mere English scholar, guiltless of Greek, 
would clearly understand, and that without increase of bulk. 
Take, for instance, two ugly neologisms, arctiodactyl and perisso- 
dactyl — why not say simply even-toed and odd-toed ? Here, by 
using plain English, we economise space without sacrificing 
intelligibility. 
Birds of the Colorado Valley. A Repository of Scientific and 
Popular Information concerning North American Ornith- 
ology. By Elliott Coues. Part I. — Passeres to Laniidas. 
Washington : Government Printing-Office. 
We have here the first part of a most valuable work — one of the 
many collateral publications issued in connection with that won- 
derful undertaking, the United States Geological and Geogra- 
phical Survey of the Territories. The author describes fully the 
structural characteristics, the habits, the geographical distribu- 
tion, and the synonymy of every bird-species known to occur in 
the Colorado Valley. The region in question corresponds ap- 
proximately with the “ middle faunal province ” of some author- 
ities. It is bounded on the east by the main water-shed of the 
Continent, the Rocky Mountains, and of the Sierra Nevada on 
the east. Its northern limit is the Salt Lake Valley, and to the 
south it fades gradually into the great Neotropical region, many 
of its characteristic forms being still traceable on the table-lands 
of Mexico. The district offers wonderful variations of climate 
and surface, and altitude — as the author remarks — does the work 
of latitude. The characteristics of the work are accuracy and 
