i83 7 .J 



Recent Literature- 



333 



Professor Ridgway writes (1S84) that the only bird in the 

 National Museum collection having abnormal toes is a Gull. It 

 is evidently a thing of rare occurrence, and further light on the 

 subject from other collectors would be of interest. 



"No. 76S5 (Mus. H. K. C), Dolichonyx oryzivorus (Linn.), 

 Bobolink, $ . Prairie, 1 mile west of S. Englewood, 111., May 

 24, 1SS7." While collecting prairie birds with Mr. Amos W. 

 Butler, I shot this specimen. On each wing is a horny spur, 

 growing from the thumb tip. 



The illustration shows the left wing, natural size. In both 

 wings the spurs are exactly alike. We secured some twenty- 

 three males and ten females the same day (Bobolinks being a 

 rarity with Mr. Butler). This was the only specimen having 

 spurs on the wings. 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Ridgway's 'Manual of North American Birds.'* — -The late Professor 

 Baird long since projected a work on North American Birds which should 

 serve as a manual and handy reference work for the sportsman and trav- 

 eller as well as the naturalist. His great responsibilities and engrossing 

 public duties, however, "precluded the possibility of his completing the 

 work which he had so long cherished, and had even begun, when called 

 to the high positions which hehas filled with so much advantage to science 

 and honor to himself." The work was therefore very naturally and fit- 

 tingly intrusted to his pupil and collaborator in previous works on the 



* A I Manual | of | North American Birds. | By | Robert Ridgway. | — | Illustrated 

 by 464 outline drawings of the | generic characters. | — | Philadelphia: | |. B. Lippin- 

 cott Company. | 1887. — Royal 8vo. pp. i-xi, 1-631. pll. i-exxiv. (Reviewed from ad- 

 vance sheets, received from the Publishers, Aug. 5, 1887.) 



