Botes on Btbgfoai’s CnialoKue of Borffe 
3>nienean §irts (1881). 
By H. J. CHARBONNIER. 
I T is a pleasant task for the naturalist, who has not the leisure 
time that original work requires, to review the work of others ; 
to reap where he has not sown ; to find ready summarized the 
long and patient investigations of his more fortunately circum- 
stanced fellow naturalists ; and to note the gradual growth and 
development of his favourite branch of enquiry. 
I was so much struck with the progress indicated in the last 
published catalogue of North American Birds, by Robert Ridg- 
way, that I thought a short review of this carefully elaborated 
list might prove of interest. 
Previously to this (1881) catalogue, the standard has been 
the list published in 1859 by Spencer F. Baird. A comparison 
of the two catalogues shows how great has been the amount of 
work accomplished by American ornithologists, and what rapid 
strides ornithology has made and is making amongst them, 
I cannot do better than quote, briefly, from the very com- 
prehensive introduction. 
“Since the publication, in 1859, of the last Smithsonian 
Catalogue of North American Birds, so many important changes 
have been made in the nomenclature of the species, and so 
numerous have been the accessions to the fauna, that the wants 
of ornithologists require a new list which shall bring the subject 
