J UN-E 14, 1895.] SCIENCE. 661 codon, etc.,we find that the degree ofadvance The of ; Descriptive Cata- displayed by these forms is not so very great logue. By ROBERT RIDGWAY. Published and that it does not involve any very long by authority of the State Legislature. lapse of time. The radical difference be- Vol.II. May, 1895. Large 80, pp. 282, tween the two faunas consists in the ordinal pls. 33. groups which are present in one and not in Ridgway's Ornithology of Illinois has a the other. Thus the Puerco has neither curious history. It was conceived by the artiodactyls, perissodactyls nor rodents, able Director of the Illinois State Labora- while the Wasatch has no Multituberculata tory of Natural History, Prof. S. A. Forbes, and relatively few Condylarthra, and the who twelve years ago asked the leading creodonts of the two formations belong, for American ornithologist to undertake its the most part, to quite different types. The preparation. Mr. Ridgway finished the obvious significance of these facts is that at manuscript early in July, 1885. The first some time between the Puerco and the volume was finally printed, but the entire Wasatch a great migration of mammals edition, together with the plates and cuts, from some other region took place and was destroyed by fire. This was in Febru- revolutionized the character of the North ary, 1887. It was reprinted from proof American fauna. sheets, and proof of the reprint was not A distinction that is likely to be fruitful submitted to the author. It was issued in of important results is Osborn's division of November, 1889. the placental mammals into the Mesopla- By a singular fatality, the manuscript of on March 28, 2016 centalia, of early and more or less Mesozoic the second volume was consumed in the type, and the Cenoplacentalia, characteristic same fire; and, excepting proof of the first of later Tertiary and recent time. " The 90 pages, which was preserved, the entire difference between these two groups consists book had to be rewritten. This formidable mainly in the lower state of and and disheartening task was accomplished

apparent incapacity for higher development in 1891, and the printed book has just been Downloaded from exhibited by the Mesoplacentals, in contrast received (May 7, 1895). with the capacity for rapid development The original plan contemplated two dis- ,shown by the Cenoplacentals. " It can tinct parts: Part I., Descriptive Catalogue, hardly be right, however, to include the by Robert Ridgway; Part II., Economic creodonts in the lower group, since they Ornithology, by S. A. Forbes. The present not only underwent a great expansion in volume completes the Descriptive Catalogue, the Puierco, but in later times they also and it is earnestly hoped that the volume gave rise, by independent development on Economic Ornithology will follow; along at least three lines, to the true Car- though the labor of preparing such a work nivora. Such a group cannot be fairly is too great to be accomplished iu a single charged with 'incapacity for higher de- lifetime or by a single man'. velopment.' The first volume is prefaced by an intro- This necessarily brief review cannot do duction of 35 pages, treating of the physical more than indicate the many points of un- features ofthe State, the climate, and charac- usual interest in this paper, and must refer teristic features of the avifauna, and end- -to the original those who would learn more ing with a bibliography. The systematic of it. part begins with a key to the higher groups, W. B. SCOTT. which are arranged in the old style, the PRINCETON COLLEGE. Thrushes coming first. The orders, fami- 662 SCIENCE. [N. S. VOL. I. No. 24. lies and genera are defined, as well as the work consists mainly of technical descrip- species. Some of the descriptions are orig- tions and synonymy, to which is added, inal, but most of them are quoted from under each species, a paragraph or two of ' Baird, Brewer and Ridgway's History of general matter which as a rule, excepting North American Birds ', and its continu- the quotations from Nelson, is hardly more ation, the 'Water Birds of North Ame- pertinent to the State of Illinois than to rica,' for which work, as everyone knows, any other part of America where the bird they were originally written by Mr. Ridg- occurs. way. The general matter is not very full Of 49 species classed by Mr. Ridgway as and is freqitently quoted from the same rare, detailed records of occurrence within work. Unfortunately about two-thirds of the State are given for 36. the biographical part was omitted because Mr. Ridgway states that the intent of the of the necessity of limiting the number of book was " to supply the people of Illinois pages. There are numerous quotations with an inexpensive work which would from Mr. E. W. Nelson's papers on the birds enable them to identify the birds they de- of Illinois, and a few personal observations sired to learn the names of, and to acquaint by the author, chiefly relating to the Aus- them with their leading characteristics." troriparian fauna of the extreme southern These primary aims the work certainly has part of the State, where he has done much fulfilled. C. H. M. field work, extending over a long period of years. A novel feature is a synonomy of Tests of Glow-Lamps: W. E. AYRTON and E. popular names, given under each species. A. MEDLEY. The Philosophical Maga- The first volume covers 520 pages and is zine, May, 1895. illustrated by 32 plates; the second volume Readers of SCIENCE who are interested in covers 282 pages and has 33 plates. Nearly the matter of electric lighting from a prac- all the plates in both volumes are from tical standpoint will find much that is in- Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, and Ridgway's structive in this paper recently printed in Manual. Most of those in the second the Philosophical Magazine and published volume were made originally for this work, as a separate. For several years Professor but owing to delay in publication were first Ayrton has been investigating the question used in the ' Manual.' The great majority of the economy of incandescent lighting and are outline figures of heads, wings and feet; and especially the behaviour of the glow- but some are shaded cuts of birds. Owing lamp under continuous use. Some of the to the destruction of the electros, part of earlier results of this investigation have these are process reproductions made from been announced from time to time in the proofs and are poorly printed. The frontis- English journals, having been communi- piece is a beautiful colored picture of a cated by Professor Ayrton to the Physical Meadowlark in full song, drawn by the Society of London. The present pamphlet author, and of unusual excellence. contains some additions made in January, In faunal works relating to particular 1895, and from these additions it appears areas it is customary to record somewhat that the results previously obtained have in detail the manner of occurrence of each not been entirely stpported by subsequent species, to indicate breeding ranges, time tests. The principal result reached in these of nesting, dates of migration and so on. tests was the rather unexpected fact that Very little information of this kind is to be the glow-lamps examined appeared to in- found in the Ornithology of Illinois. The crease in effectiveness during the first 80 or