SKETCH OF NORTH AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY IN 1879.

SINCE

BY DR. ELLIOTT COUES, U.S.A.

INCE the year 1858, memorable in our annals for the appearance of Baird's great work, which gave such an impetus to the study of birds in this country, and in the light of which a generation of ornithologists has grown up, activity in this department has been incessant; and the workers in this field have never been more numerous or more in earnest than during the year just passed-one which, though marked in no especial manner, has witnessed a steady advance in the extent and in the precision of our ornithological knowledge.

Foremost among the signs of the times stands the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, the fourth volume of which closed with 1879. Originating in the necessity which the Club experienced to have a medium of communication with the public, and edited by Mr. Allen with conspicuous ability, this periodical soon secured firm foothold, and its success became assured. The magazine, devoted entirely to the technic of a branch of science, is phenomenal in the fact, that so special a publication has paid for itself from the start, and already doubled its size. It is a trite saying, though generally an untrue one, that such and such a publication "fills a real want," but this is actually the case here. Nearly all the working ornithologists of America record the progress of their affairs in the "Nuttall," so that if one wishes to know what has been found out since the appearance of the last formal treatise on our birds, he turns to the Bulletin with confidence. In fine, it answers in America to the English Ibis and the German Journal für Ornithologie. It is, of course, impracticable to give here any analysis of its contents, and to mention a few leading papers would be both invidious and unnec

essary.

It may not be so generally known that there is published at Utica, N. Y., by S. L. Willard, a bi-monthly periodical entitled The Oölogist, devoted entirely to the nests, eggs and breeding habits of our birds. Beginning very modestly, The Oölogist has more than held its own; several volumes are completed, the size has been enlarged, and the conduct of the periodical has become so workmanlike that the claims of this serial to general recognition are just.

In the same connection we should not fail to notice the

.

increasing attention paid to ornithology by several of the semiscientific papers, notably Charles Hallock's Forest and Stream, of New York, and Dr. Rowe's The Field, of Chicago. Though of course dealing chiefly in game birds, the natural history department of these papers gives us a good deal of ornithological matter; the articles are grown more shapely, with a smaller proportion of untitled, anonymous or otherwise "scrappy" pieces; on the whole, these contributions rank with those of the London Field, and many of them are precisely of the character of the shorter notes in the Nuttall Bulletin, or in Harting's Zoologist. In the case of Forest and Stream, we believe the commendable state of affairs to be largely due to the zeal and competence of Mr. George B. Grinnell, whose example in this particular is to be emulated.

Science News, a fortnightly record of progress in science, established and edited in New York by W. C. Wykoff and Ernest Ingersoll, contains a fair proportion of ornithological matter. Among articles of 1879 may be noted Ingersoll's instructions for forming collections of nests and eggs, and a part of G. B. Sennett's experiences on the Rio Grande. We regret to learn that the publication died with the year.

The promptly-appearing and readily-available avenues of communication thus far mentioned have naturally absorbed most of the current items of ornithological information or entertainment for the year, less than formerly falling to the share of the AMERICAN NATURALIST, and the slower or more irregular publications of scientific societies containing but few papers, all of a very techni cal character.

Leading these last comes the Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum, published by the Department of the Interior under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution. The completed first volume dates 1879, about half of it appearing in sheets in 1878. Here are found the complete results of Mr. F. A. Ober's Explorations in the Lesser Antilles, elaborated in a series of important papers by Mr. G. N. Lawrence. One paper on these collections was in Forest and Stream, and descriptions of several of Ober's new species are given in the Annals of the New York Academy of Science, but the whole matter is finally set forth in the publication in mention. The Proceedings also contain several important papers by R. Ridgway, on neotropical birds, describing new species, monographing the genus Tyrannus, &c,

together with L. Belding's extended list of Californian birds, edited by Mr. Ridgway. Vol. II opens with a paper by Dr. T.. M. Brewer on Empidonax.

The Bulletin of the U. S. Geological Survey gives us its fifth and, as we particularly regret to add, its final volume this year. It consists of the usual four numbers, of which the first and second and third have appeared, the fourth being still in press, delayed by printing E. Coues's protracted and tedious bibliographical matter. In this volume are several papers on birds. Dr. C. E. McChesney, U. S. A., has some valuable notes on the Birds of Fort Sisseton, Dakota. Mr. George B. Sennett gives an extensive and important paper on the results of his second season's operations in Texas, adding several new species to our fauna, with great store of information respecting the habits of the birds. of the Rio Grande. Dr. Morris Gibbs gives an annotated list of the birds of Michigan. Dr. Coues prints an article on the present status of Passer domesticus in America, including an historical résumé of the quarrel over the sparrow, which has set the brethren of Boston and Washington so by the ears. The same writer also offers a second'instalment of his ornithological bibliography, similar in scope and plan to that which forms the appendix to his "Birds of the Colorado Valley," but relating to neotropical instead of nearctic birds.

In the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, Dr. T. M. Brewer gives additional notes on the birds of New England, and Mr. E. A. Mearns has published in the Bulletin of the Essex Institute, several instalments of an elaborate and valuable list of the birds of the Hudson Highlands, N. Y.

The Transactions of the Illinois Horticultural Society, for 1878, published in 1879, contain a paper on economic ornithology, by Prof. Forbes; and we may add that previous volumes of the same publication contain similar matter, perhaps none too well known. It is an important practical subject; such contributions to which as those of Prof. Forbes, of Prof. Aughey (in the First Annual Report of the U. S. Entomological Commission, 1878), of Dr. J. M. Wheaton (Twenty-ninth Report Ohio Board of Agriculture, 1875), merit special attention pending the sparrow question.

The Journal of Science, edited at Toledo, Ohio, by Dr. E. H. Fitch, continues to give popular articles on birds, mostly by the editor, and usually illustrated.

The Familiar Science and Fanciers' Journal continues to fill its

chosen sphere well, and has frequent articles of more technical character. Dr. Wm. Wood has here continued his "Birds of Connecticut."

The most important we had almost said the only very important-contribution to systematic ornithology, among special treatises, is Elliot's Synopsis of the Trochilidæ, published as one of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. It is a really great work, which bids fair to supersede Gould's Monograph in all that relates to the technic of the subject. As witnessed by the many critical papers which Mr. Elliot has published during the progress of his study of this family of birds, the author has been unwearied in his attention to the subject, and this extensive quarto gives his final results. Mr. Elliot is "conservative" to a degree; very many nominal species are reduced to synonyms, the preparation of the lists of which shows great care and judgment; and the ridiculously over-large number of genera which various writers have sought to establish, have found what we trust will be their final resting place. Numerous illustrations, from Mr. Ridgway's pencil, fitly illustrate the text of a memoir which 'instantly becomes indispensable to the working Trochilidists and which will undoubtedly carry the weight of the leading authority on the subject.

Since Audubon's pencil and brush fell from the hand which for so many years turned them to works of unsurpassed beauty, nothing in the way of ornithological art appeared in this country to challenge comparison with the work of the great master until, from an unexpected quarter, the "Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of the Birds of Ohio" were laid before us by the Misses Jones and Shulze, of Circleville, Ohio. Two numbers of this splendid work have appeared during the past year, and the prospect of the completion of the undertaking brightens as the merits of the "Illustrations" become better known, notwithstanding the untimely death of the leading author on the threshold of her enterprise. This work is in folio, and is published by subscription, in parts, each to contain several colored plates of nests and eggs, of life size, with sheets of descriptive letter press. Combining as it does, the merits of fidelity to nature with artistic excellence, this work commends itself in an especial manner to all those who have a taste for the beauties of bird-life, as well as those who make ornithology a severe study.

Another contribution to our knowledge of the eggs, nests and

breeding-habits of birds is essayed by Mr. Ernest Ingersoll, and so far accomplished in a most meritorious manner. Three numbers have appeared during the year past, in March, August and October respectively. This work is in large octavo, with several colored plates of eggs to each number, and more or less extended biographies of the species. Excepting in certain particulars, which we have noted in other places already, the mechanical execution does great credit to the publisher, Mr. Cassino; and the completion of this extensive work in the manner in which Mr. Ingersoll has begun it cannot fail to enrich the literature of the subject.

We are glad to see the steady progress made by Mr. C. J. Maynard in his meritorious and laborious undertaking, which, beginning as the "Birds of Florida," has been remodeled and enlarged in scope, to represent a history of the birds of Eastern North America. Mr. Maynard is a practical ornithologist of large field experience; his biographies have the unusual merit of originality and make interesting reading, while the attention he pays to the anatomical structure of birds gives prominence to one aspect of the subject much neglected in this country. The work is in quarto, with colored plates; it is published in parts, about a⚫ dozen of which have appeared, and deserves to succeed.

With due deference to Herbert, whom, as "Frank Forester," the disciples of St. Hubert seem to have canonized as only a lesser than their patron saint himself, we may refer to Dr. Lewis's work on American Field Sports as one of the most agreeable and reliable of books of this kind, and one a new edition of which has appeared this year.

The veteran taxidermist, collector and dealer of Philadelphia, Mr. John Krider, has also contributed to such literature in the publication of his experiences of "Forty Years."

"Wilsoniana" bids fair to become scarcely less extensive and fertile a field than "Waltoniana" has long been. The appearance not long since of A. B. Grosart's two portly volumes on Wilson's life, character and writings, both prose and poetry, and rather miscellaneous than ornithological, freshened the theme." It may not be generally known that the "father of American ornithology" was anything (and almost everything) but an ornithologist, until the decade before his untimely death in his prime, when his genius at last found its "place in nature," and achieved immortality. Every scrap of paper relating to the "melancholy poet-naturalist" has been eagerly sought for by his