Becently published Ornithological Works, 241 



(p. 46) Dr. T. H. Streets describes a new Duck from Wash- 

 ington Island, one of the Fanning group in the Pacific, which 

 he proposes to call Chaulelasmus couesi. It is in plumage 

 like C. strepei'us in winter dress, but much smaller in size. 

 In the third number Dr. E. Coues gives some interesting re- 

 marks on the number of the primaries in the Oscines. In 

 the fourth number is an excellent paper by Mr. Ridgway on 

 geographical variation in Dendrceca palmarum, and Dr. Mer- 

 rill, in his " Notes on Texan Birds,^^ introduces several species 

 as new to the United States. Notices of new publications 

 are given in the last three numbers. 



19. Palmm's Migration-routes of Birds. 



[Ueber die Zugstrassen der Vogel von J. A. Palm(5n, Decent der Zoo- 

 logie an der UniversitJit Helsiugfors. Leipzig, Engelmann. 1 vol. 8vo, 

 pp. 292.] 



Some of our readers may be acquainted with an excellent 

 academic dissertation, ^^Om Foglarnes Flyttnings vagar,^^ 

 published by Prof. Palmeu at Helsingfors in 1874. We have 

 now a revised and augmented translation of the above-named 

 work in a tongue better known to most English naturalists, 

 and well worthy of their study. It is an attempt to answer 

 the question. What routes are taken by migratory birds from 

 their breeding-places to their winter- quarters and back again ? 

 For good reasons, explained by our author, special attention 

 is given to some twenty species which breed in the Polar 

 islands, or only in the extreme north of Europe, in order to 

 solve this problem ; and their distribution at different seasons 

 throughout the Old World is carefully studied. An outline 

 map shows at a glance the results arrived at as regards the 

 arctic categories of migrants. But much more work remains 

 to be done before any thing like a complete answer can be 

 given to the problem which Prof. Palmen is studying. 



20. Dr. Streets' s Account of the Fanning Islands. 



[Some Account of the Natural History of the Fanning Group of Islands. 

 By Dr. Thomas H. Streets, U.S. N. Amer. Nat. xi. pp. 65 (1877).] 



An interesting notice of the birds of the Fanning group 

 of islands, in the Pacific, is given in the ' American Naturalist ' 



