194 Recently published Ornithulogical Works. 



pastures, he pertinently asks, if there were no birds ? Were 

 it not for our Rooks, Jackdaws, Starlings, Plovers, and 

 Gulls the pastures would be rendered bare by subterranean 

 insects. But those who are interested in the question should 

 read Mr. Theobald's article, and may reFer to some of the 

 eighteen authorities on the subject which he recommends 

 for study. We observe, however, that he does not mention 

 what has been done in America, where the Agincultural 

 Department at Washington has performed an enormous 

 amount of excellent work relating to this important question. 



25. Townshend and Allen on the Birds of Labrador. 



[Birds of Labrador. By Charles W. Townshend, M.D., and Glover 

 M. Allen. Proc. Boston Soc. of N. II. vol. xxxiii.no. 7 (Boston, 1907).] 



The enormous peninsula called Labrador, which lies 

 between Hudson's Bay on the one side and the Atlantic on 

 the other, has had many visitors who have studied its birds 

 and have written more or less extended notes about them. 

 The authors of the present memoir made a summer excursion 

 up the east coast in 1896, which, although brief, has served 

 to give an idea of the country to which they have devoted 

 their attention, and has been of much use to them in the 

 composition of the present memoir. 



A well -written introduction treats of the topography, 

 faunal areas, and ornithological history of Labrador and of 

 other allied topics. George Cartright, of Newark, England, 

 appears to have been the earliest writer on the birds, and has 

 given a vivid account of them, in the course of which he 

 has described the capture of a Great Auk. The illustrious 

 Audubon made a special expedition up the coast in the 

 summer of 1833, and achieved good results for his great work. 

 Since then Storer, Bryant, Coues, Verrill, Brewster, Packard, 

 and many other ornithologists have visited Labrador, and 

 added more or less to our knowledge of its Avifauna. 



The authors summarize all the previous records of 

 the birds of Labrador in an " Annotated List " of the 

 species and subspecies arranged according to the American 

 Check-list and provided with abundant field-notes. They 



