ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB, 
93 
make any material changes in my own views. Our ornithological 
horizons have evidently not been the same, and consequently our 
conclusions are not always in unison. He is welcome to his own 
conjectures, inferences, and opinions, but I must be permitted to 
retain my own, “ H. A, P.” to the contrary notwithstanding, until 
he produces something of more weight than unsupported assertion. 
Birds of Southwestern Mexico. — Mr. George N. Lawrence has 
recently published *■ his Report on the Birds of Southwestern Mexico, col- 
lected by Professor Francis E. Sumichrast, under the auspices of the Smith- 
sonian Institution. The list embraces three hundred and twenty-one 
species, with valuable and occasionally quite copious field-notes by the col- 
lector. The paper is prefaced by several pages, by Professor Sumichrast, on 
the character of the avian fauna of Southwestern Mexico, which contain 
interesting generalizations respecting the distribution of the species. — 
J. A. A. 
Jordan’s Manual of Vetebrate Animals. t — This work, says the 
author, was written “ to give collectors and students who are not specialists 
a ready means of identifying the families, genera, and species of our Verte- 
brate Animals. In deference to the uniform experience of botanists, and 
in view of the remarkable success achieved by Dr, Coues, in the applica- 
tion of the method to Ornithology, the author has adopted the system of 
artificial keys Use has been freely made of every available source 
of information, and it is believed that the present state of our knowledge is 
fairly represented.” The task the author has here attempted seems to have 
been carefully done, and the work will doubtless prove of great value 
to the class for which it has been prepared. It indicates thorough ac- 
quaintance with the literature of the subjects treated, and well represents 
the latest and most approved views respecting the classification and no- 
* Birds of Southwestern Mexico, collected by Francis E. Sumichrast. Pre- 
pared by George R. Lawrence. BulL.U- S. National Museum, No. 4. Published 
under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution. Washington: Government 
Printing-Office. 1876. 
t Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States, including the 
District east of the Mississippi River, and north of North Carolina and Tennessee, 
exclusive of Marine Species. By David Starr Jordan, M. S., M. D., etc. Chi- 
cago : Jansen, McClurg, & Co. 1876. 12mo. pp. 342. Price, $2.00. _ 
