Recent Literature. 
77 
fUrcnt literature, 
Sharpe’s “ Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum.” — 
Three volumes of this important work have now appeared. The first, de- 
voted to the Diurnal Birds of Prey, was published in 1874 ; the second, 
embracing the Owls, in 1875 ; and the third, treating of several families 
of Passerine birds, in 1877.* These volumes are intended to embrace de- 
scriptions of all the known species of the groups treated, and hence form 
invaluable hand-books. The descriptions are generally very detailed, 
embracing an account of the various stages of plumage through which the 
different species pass, and copious bibliographical references are given. 
While the labor bestowed upon these volumes is evidently very great, 
they are not in all respects what we should like to see them. No generic 
diagnoses, for instance, are given beyond what may be gleaned from the 
“ Keys to the Genera ” of each subfamily, and generally no comparative 
characters of the species, except those afforded by the “Keys” accom- 
panying the genera. The keys themselves, both of the genera and 
species, are a great help in determining the species, but do not always 
fully serve their intended purpose. The species are generally described 
without direct comparison with their near allies, and although the descrip- 
tions are sometimes greatly extended, they too often fail to duly emphasize 
important or distinctive points. By a judicious grouping of common 
characters and contrasted diagnoses, the essential points of difference be- 
tween closely allied forms would have been made more prominent, and 
the amount of text rather lessened than increased. Our gratitude for 
a general work on the birds of the world, containing so many points of 
excellence as the present, ought perhaps to soften our criticism, especially 
when it is remembered how few have either the courage, the endurance, or 
access to the necessary material, for the great task Mr. Sharpe has so ener- 
getically undertaken and is so ably carrying out. 
The Raptorial Birds are treated as an order ( Accipitres ), with three sub- 
orders, Falcones, Pandiones , and Striges. For the Diurnal Birds of Prey, 
the old family divisions of Vulturidce and Falconidce are retained, except 
that the Fish-Hawks (genera Pandion and Polioaetus) are removed from 
the latter to form the wholly untenable “suborder” Pandiones. The 
* Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Yol. I. Catalogue of the 
Accipitres, or Diurnal Birds of Prey. By R. Bowdler Sharpe. 8vo. pp. xiii. 
480, pis. xiv. London, 1874. Yol. II. Cataogue of the Striges, or Nocturnal 
Birds of Prey. By the same. 8vo., pp. xi, 326, pis. xiv. 1875. Yol. III. 
Catalogue of the Coliomorphse, containing the families Corvidae, Paradiseidse, 
Oriolidae, Dicruridae, and Prionopidae. By the same. 8vo, pp. xiii, 344, pis. 
xiv. 1877. 
