Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/108

100 less than half the page, the remainder being left for recording the observations of the reader, who thus becomes a joint author and has the pleasure of seeing whether or not he is in agreement with his collaborateur.

The book is written in a pleasing style and while here and there a little loose in its statements, one should not hold the author too strictly to account, since the very object of the book is to induce the reader to make his own observations and draw his own deductions, and the possibility of proving someone wrong is a great stimulus towards this end.

The recent issue of part four, consisting of 283 pages of text and 392 plates, completes Jordan and Evermann's 'Fishes of North and Middle America,' published as Bulletin No. 47 of the U. S. National Museum. The 'Synopsis of the Fishes of North America,' by Jordan and Gilbert, issued in 1882, was a single volume of 1,074 pages, with no plates, containing descriptions of 1,340 species of fishes; the present work is in four volumes, consisting of 3,528 pages, 240 of which are devoted to the index and 392 plates, and over 3,000 species are described. Naturally, a considerable portion of this increase is due to the extension of the area covered, but still a large part is caused by the increased number of species now known to ichthyologists. The work is in no sense of a popular nature and it goes without saying that it is simply indispensable to the student of North American ichthyology; it will doubtless be many years before any revision of it is attempted. It is not our purpose to review the work—to do that would require much knowledge and much time—but to congratulate the authors on the completion of their task.

years ago Mr. Robert Ridgway, at the request of Dr. Goode, undertook the preparation of a work that should do for birds what Jordan and Evermann have done for fishes, give a description of all forms inhabiting North America north of the Isthmus of Panama, including as well the West Indies, the Galapagos and the islands of the Caribbean Sea. Although several times interrupted by the illness of Mr. Ridgway, the manuscript of the first volume is now ready for the printer and the second is so far advanced that it will probably be completed by the end of the year. The outlines for the entire series, which will, it is estimated, fill seven octavo volumes of 600 pages each, are drawn up, and several of the other volumes are well under way.

The total number of species and subspecies to be treated is, roundly speaking, 3,000, and the first volume, devoted to the Fringlllidae, comprises descriptions of over 370 species and subspecies. There are keys to the families, genera and species, and besides a careful technical description and very full synonymy, the range of each species is given; all extra-limital families are included in the keys, but extra-limital genera and species only when their number is small. As much more work has been done in ornithology than in ichthyology, the synonymy will be much more extensive than in Jordan and Evermann's 'Fishes of North and Middle America,' and as particular attention has been given to the verification of references and ascertaining the original spelling of generic and specific names, this part of the work has necessitated an amount of labor that can only be appreciated by those who have been engaged in similar tasks. In addition, the type locality of each species and the present location of each type has been given whenever it could be ascertained.

The work is based on the collections of the U. S. National Museum, but much material has been examined belonging not only to other museums, but to private individuals who have generously placed their specimens at Mr. Ridgway's disposal. The collections of the Biological Survey of the