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Kev T0 Nan-ll AMERICAN BIRDS . . . . with which are incorporated General Ornithology: An Outline of the Structure and Classification of Birds; anti Field Ornithology. a Manual of Collecting, Preparing and Preserving Birds. Fifth Edition, entirely revised. By El.l.loTT Cones. Boston: Dana Estes 84 Co.. .903. Two volumes, royal tvn. xli+ tlsz pages. 74,7 black and white illustrations in the text two lull-page colored plates.
The fifth edition ol this great work appears in two volumes. but otherwise resembles in form the second to fourth editions. The Historical Preface and Part 1. Field Orni- thology, are evidently printed from the plates used in former cditionl; Part II. General Ornithology, is unchanged. for the addition of some material chiefly in relation to the colors of feathers (pp. xx. 92). in which we regret to see that the now exploded theory of repigmentation of a fully grown feather is given credence.
We cannot believe that Dr. Coues intended this part of the Key to go to press without at least some reference to the numerous important contributions to our knowledge of avian anatomy which have been made since the text originally appeared in r884.
It is in Pan Ill. Systematic Synopsis of North American Birds, that the principal changes from the old Key will he found. This appears to have been recast to con- form in the main to the nomenclature of the A. 0. U. ‘Check-List'. but the order of arrangement difiers. the Thrushes standing at the beginning instead of at the end of the list.
There is additional general matter here. as well as descriptions of forms not inclutled in earlier editions. and to these descriptions are usually added the more important refer- ences concerning the bird under considera- tion—an exceedingly helpful feature. There are also more common names given; but where these are not in use. as they are for certain wild—fowl. for example. it would seem more desirable to ignore them
save
and give only the name appearing in the A. 0. ll. ‘Check-List‘. The latter. it may he noted. is often wanting. antl we miss also the A. O. U. serial numbers. tlte absence of which prove an renienee in a variety of ways,
It is in tile illustrations that the new Key will be found to difler most strikingly from its predecessors, Not only are many of those which have seen service in numerous
will incon-
books very properly discarded, hur a great number of new cuts have been introduced. These are. in the main. by Mr. Fuertea. who made them especially for this work. It is needless to say that they are spirited and life-like pictures of the birds they portray. and we wish we could say that they had been adequately reproduced; but in ‘silhouetting’ or 'touting out' the half- tone plate the outline of the bird has often been marred. while the attempt to use half- tones in the text on a soft»finish paper has met with the usqu failure. Comparison of cuts from the old Nichols wood-engravings. with their clear gradations and satisfactory definition, with these muddy. clogged half-tone prints illustrates only too forcibly how impossible i is to get satisfactory results from half-tones on anything but coated or calendared paper.
The task of seeing these volumes through the press fell to the lot of Mr. J. A. Farley. anti in view oi the numerous tlill'icultles and complications which. of necessity. are encountered in editing a posthumously published manuscriptI it must be said that he has done his work remarkably well. Slips there are here and there. as. for example. the captions to t~uts Nos. 461 and 68.}. in which the Shatp-sbinned Hawk and Marbled Murrelel are called respec- tively "Pigeon Hawk " and "American Herring Gull. Young." But these are of minor importance when one considers the opportun' ies for error in printing a work of this kind. Mr. Farley adds a table of the additions to the list of North American
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