2 I 8 Recettt Literature. Vh^- 



covers the period from January to August, 1901. This large collection 

 numbers about 260 species and subspecies, 12 of which are here charac- 

 terized as new. "A large proportion of tlie mountain species," says Mr. 

 Bangs, "are not different from tlie birds of the high Costa Rica moun- 

 tains, although there are some striking exceptions ; and the \"o]can de 

 Chiriqui is probably too near to have a mountain fauna wholly its own. 

 Those birds that do differ usually have larger bills than their Costa Rica 

 representatives." Although for the most part the list is a record merely 

 of the specimens contained in the collection, with dates and localities of 

 capture, without field notes, here and there Mr. Bangs adds technical 

 comment on the nomenclature and relationships of some of the forms. 

 The paper is, of course, an important addition to our knowledge of the bird 

 fauna of this very interesting region, and great credit is due Mr. Brown for 

 his intelligent and energetic work in gathering the material which INIr. 

 Bangs has so discriminatingly elaborated. — J. A. A. 



Scale on the Avifauna of Guam.' — Mr. Seale was sent to the island of 

 Guam, one of the Mariana or Ladrone Islands, by the Bishop Museum of 

 Honolulu to make collections of its fauna. Volume I of the 'Occasional 

 Papers' of this Museum contains reports by Mr. Seale on the birds and 

 fishes. The island of Guam, says Mr. Seale, "is densely wooded, except 

 in the northwest, where there is a small range of low mountains reaching 

 to an elevation of iSoo feet." The island is thirty-two iniles long by 

 twelve miles broad, and has a general altitude of from fiftj' to seventy-five 

 feet ; it has "a few small fresh water ponds and marshes, and perhaps eight 

 to ten small streams." Mr. Scale's paper on the birds is not merely a list 

 of the species, but is constructed on the plan of a ' hand-book,' w^ith keys 

 to the genera and species, as well as to the higher groups, and descrip- 

 tions of the species and bibliographical references. It is intended to 

 include all of the species known from the island, and apparently to make 

 sure of this a few are included of doubtful or probable occurrence. 

 Some of these have been recorded from other islands of the Mariana group, 

 but others from points not nearer than the Samoan Islands, or merely as 

 from " intertropical seas." In several instances included species are 

 stated to be " not known from Guam." 



The number of species formally included is 58, of which about one half 

 appear to have been obtained by Mr. Seale, many of them in good series. 

 There are also interesting observations on the habits of many species, and 

 illustrations of the nests and eggs of several of them. A new species of 

 Heron is described as Ardetta hrynni. 



The paper will doubtless prove of great use to ornithologically inclined 



1 Report of a Mission to Guam. By Alvin Seale. Part I. — Avifauna. Occas. 

 Papers of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum of Polynesian Ethnology and 

 Natural History, Vol. I, No. 3, 1901, pp. 17-60, pll., and 6 text figures. 



