192 Gem rul Notes. 



in a distinct paragraph, and each paragraph beginning with the name of 

 the species in Italics. The ruk- given by the author demonstrates that all 

 these are by him considered " New England birds." Among those thus 

 oriven are Saxicola cenanthe, Oporornh formosa, Seiurus ludovicianu*, < 'turns 

 oxsifragus, and several others, all of which, at that time, were without any 

 evidence of a New England existence. Several were so admitted by the 

 writer in giving them, and some, to this day, have no record in favor ot' 

 their being of New England. Yet these stand in the list, paragraph, 

 Italics, and all, indistinguishable from Turdus migratorius or Spizella 

 social is as to their right to he there. 



On page '64 the impartial reader will find an " Addenda," giving three 

 more species, all recorded in precisely the same manner with the preceding 

 three hundred ami thirty-two, — that is, in separate paragraphs, commen- 

 cing with their names in Italics, — two of them claimed as actually taken. 

 the third given as fouml botli on our north ami south, ami stragglers in 

 New England are anticipated, and all three apparently intended to lie in- 

 cluded in the list. Certainly they are not distinguishable from the others, 

 and Hesperiphona is, to all appearance, as much included in the list as 

 ( 'orvus ossifragus, or any of the others that arc admitted to lie not actually 

 known to have been taken within its limits. 



Now, turning to my list of the birds of New England, page 18, it will he 

 seen thai 1 simply refer to the fact that the bird is thii- given, and on 



hypothetical grounds, the only apparent reason fin- thus giving it being that 

 its occurrence was regarded as probable, and that I, so far from discred- 

 iting, fully admitted this probability, strengthening the hypothesis by 

 mentioning a new instance of its ascertained occurrence mar Vermont. 

 The impartial reader can but find that my statement, instead of being 

 false, was to all appearance fully justified ; that a "claim "was plainly 

 implied by the writer's own test as to his own cleaning and intent, — not 

 as ascertained, like Slrix pratincola, but as hypothetical, like Siurus lulo- 

 vicianus : and that not only in the particular paragraph, but throughout 

 my list, no " side-thrust" is given or intended for any one whatever, — in 

 a word, thai the accusation is purely imaginative, and that all I stated 



was given in cat ire good faith. 



Whether I deserve to have it said of me that I "have become not ibly 



over fond of giving side-ihnisls to any unc who may chance to dill'er," or 



whether such an unamiable peculiarity is more typical of someone else, 

 would be a question quite out of place in what I trust its publishers design 

 in be a journal devoted to pun' ornithological science, and I am the last 



person who would seek to misuse its pages by mere personalities. — 



Timi.m \s M. Bhewkr. 



[Though we reluctantly open the pages of the Bulletin to mere per- 

 sonalities, we here give Dr. Brewer a cliancc to be heard. We arc in- 

 formed tli it the person referred to has no reply to make. — Eds.] 



