and forthcoming Bird-Books. 179 
volume*, we find announced as ready the first two volumes of 
Professor Baird's long-promised f History of North-American 
Birds/ in which he has been assisted by Dr. Thomas M. 
Brewer and Mr. Bobert Ridgway. “The object" of this 
work, we are informed, is “ to give a complete account of the 
birds of the whole of North America, north of Mexico, ar¬ 
ranged according to the most approved system of modern 
classification, and with descriptions which, while embodying 
whatever is necessary to the proper definition of the species 
and their varieties in as simple a language as possible, ex¬ 
clude all unnecessary technicalities and irrelevant matter. 
On this account it is especially recommended to the beginner. 
The descriptions are all prefaced by analytical and synoptical 
tables, intended to diminish as much as possible the labour 
of identification. 
“ The illustrations consist, first of a series of outlines ex¬ 
hibiting the peculiarities of the wing, tail, bill, and feet of 
each genus; but as these diagrams, however serviceable to 
the ornithologist, necessarily fail to give any idea of the form 
of the bird, they are supplemented by a second series, in¬ 
cluding a full-length figure of one species of each genus. In 
addition to the above a series of plates is furnished, contain- 
one or more figures of the head, in most cases of life-size, of 
every species of North-American bird, including the different 
sexes, ages, and seasons, where these are necessary for the 
proper illustration of the subject." 
There can be no doubt that such works as these and Dr. 
Coues's f Key' will render great facilities to future students 
of the American ornis. 
We now arrive at the sixth and last great ornithological 
region of the world, the Neotropical. Here, as many of our 
readers are aware, Mr. Salvin and I have been long at work, 
in hopes of some day being able to accomplish a task which 
I proposed to myself some years ago, the preparation of an 
‘ Index Avium Americanarum/ something after the fashion of 
the best part of Bonaparte's f Conspectus.' We have got so 
far as to have monographed many of the least-known and 
* See Ibis, 1873, p. 442. 
