278 



Recent Literature. \^'^ 



Howe and Allen's Birds of Massachusetts. 1 — Messrs. Howe and 

 Allen in a special work of about 150 pages have given us an excellent 

 summary of the bird fauna of Massachusetts. It is in most respects so 

 well done that we wish we could give it unqualified approval. Under the 

 heading ' Faunal Areas of Massachusetts ' the topographical features of 

 the State are described and the life zones are discussed at some length 

 with, naturally, little that is new in relation to this feature of the subject. 

 Then follows an 'Annotated List of the Species' authentically recorded 

 as found in the State, numbering 362, followed by supplemental lists of 

 the extirpated species, numbering 4, and extinct species, numbering 2, and 

 a list of 15 introduced species, while 15 are entered under the heading 

 ' Erroneously Recorded.'' Two additional species are placed in an 

 'Apocryphal List.' 



The annotations include not only the usual notes on the relative abun- 

 dance and times of migration, but detailed records for special localities, 

 so that " individuals working in restricted portions of this topographically 

 varied State will have, in many cases, annotations applicable to their 

 particular region." No species is admitted into the ' List ' that has not 

 an authentic record, great care having been taken in this respect to weed 

 out all unaiithenticated species. The 'List' has thus several unusual 

 features of utilitv and trustworthiness. We regret, therefore, all the more 

 that the authors have taken it upon themselves to rearrange the ' List ' 

 according to their own preference of sequence, so that the ordinary stu- 

 dent, familiar with the arrangement of the A. O. U. 'Check-List,' will 

 find himself greatly at sea with the new order in the present catalogue. 

 We also regret to notice that the authors have made " various changes in 

 orthography for the sake of consistency." In other words they have in 

 numerous instances departed from the usual orthography in a number of 

 bird names, without, apparently, any uniform system of emendation, 

 but simply 'emending' as they happened to feel like it. Their emenda- 

 tions, therefore, while not radical or numerous, are sufficient to give a 

 distasteful flavor to their work; also certain suggested changes in nomen- 

 clatnre have been adopted, some of which are of doubtful advisability. 

 The innovations in these respects serve, however, to give the work a cer- 

 tain personality, which is doubtless pleasing to the authors. 



A bibliography and an index complete the work, the bibliographical 

 list being restricted, as said by the authors, to papers relating exclusively 

 to Massachusetts birds. — J. A. A. 



iThe I Birds of Massachusetts | By | Reginald Heber Howe, Junior, | and | 

 Glover Morrill Allen | Members of the Nuttall Ornithological Club | and | 

 Associate Members of the American Ornithologists' Union | Published by 

 Subscription | Cambridge, Massachusetts | 1901. 8vo, pp. 1-154. 



