1 91 7-1 Recently published Ornithological Works. Ill 



Rice Institute, Houston, Texas. His paper is a plea for a 

 rapprochement between the amateur bird-watcher and the 

 professional zoologist and anatomist, and he sliows that 

 many of the observations and facts gleaned by the former 

 from careful and patient bird-watching are of tlie utmost 

 value, and if skilfully noted dowji can be of the greatest 

 assistance in solving some of the mo'-t difficult i)roblems of 

 biology. 



Of papers dealing with migration prohlems Mr. J. C. 

 Phillips draws the attention of his readers to the fact, 

 recorded by Prof, Reichenow some years ago, of the occur- 

 rence of enormous flights of the North-American Ducks — 

 The Green-winged Teal, The Pintail, and the Canvas-back — 

 across the Marshall Islands, which lie to the north-east of 

 New Guinea, in October and May, and he asks where do 

 they come from and where do they go to, as none of these 

 species are known anywhere south of the Equator, and it 

 is difficult to know what becomes of them in the winter 

 months ; presumably they arrive from Alaska, but this, 

 again, is a distance of over 5000 miles. 



Another paper dealing with Ducks is one by Mr. VV. 

 de W. Miller in which it is pointed out that the Scoters 

 generally placed in one genus (Oidemia) can be naturally 

 divided into two distinct sections distinguished by im- 

 portant structural characters, and that it is advisable to 

 recognise two genera — Oidemia, type O. nigra, with an 

 attenuated outer primax-y in the male, sixteen tail-featliers, 

 and without an enlargement of the trachea; and Melunittu, 

 type M.fvsca, with a normal outer primary, fourteen tail- 

 feathers, and two bull)ous enlargements on the trachea. 



Messrs. Bowdish & Philipp have recently found the nest 

 and eggs of the Tennessee Warbler in New Brunswick. 

 These eggs are among the rarest and least known of those of 

 North-American Birds. The first definitely recorded were 

 taken at Fort Smith in the far north-west. The nest and 

 eggs of the Snow-Finch {Leucosticia uitstralis) are also 

 described for the first time, having been taken by Mr. F. C. 

 Lincoln at an elevation of 13,500 feet in Colorado. 



