6 THE CONDOR VOL VI

DR. LEONHARD TEJNEGER It was concerning one of Dr. l,eonhard Stejneger's best known wrks that Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe wrote the following: "I must emphatically state my conviction that, with the exception o[ some of Professor Elliott Coues's essays, there has never been a popular work on birds so well conceived as the 'Aves' volume of the "Stand- ard Natural History," or one which, prolessedly popular in its aims. contains such an amount o! sterling new and original work. It differs, moreover, from most re- cent schelnes in giving diagnostic characters for every Order and Family, and is thus entitled to foremost rank as an original work. '" The same year (x885) that the volume on 'Birds' of the Standard Natural History appeared, Dr. Stejneger's exhaustive treatise on the Birds of the Commander Islands and Kamtschatka was published. Previously the well-known Analcora Ornithologica was commenced in The Auk, and during the years following, the Review o the Birds ot Japan came out in insraiments in the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum; and in the same publication appeared a number of articles on Hawaiian Birds. Dr. Stejneger has been responsible for a very extensive list of papers, many of them on the more difficult phases of ornithological investigation. His work has been characterized by unusual thoroughness and accuracy, and has undoubtedly greatly influenced, at least in America, our present conceptions of the relationships and classification of birds. During the past decade Dr. Stejneger has devoted a large part of his time to herpetology. a A Revienv of Recent Attempts to Classify Birds. By R. Bowtiler Sharpe, L.L.D., F. R. S. Budapest, I89I, p. 2 4.