248 Recent Literature. [April 



' Check-List/ with the several local vernacular names and brief comments 

 on the time of occurrence, relative abundance, habits and more important 

 color marks. No less than 368 species and subspecies are listed in this 

 pamphlet, an increase of forty-five over the list of Messrs. Beyer, Allison 

 and Kopman, published in ' The Auk ' (Vols. XXIII, XXIV and XXXII). 

 An introduction of eight pages considers the history of Louisiana bird 

 life, migration and other general topics, while a number of small maps and 

 half-tone text figures illustrate this interesting and welcome publication. — 

 W. S. 



Murphy on the Natural History of the Mexican Portion of the 

 Colorado Desert. 1 — Mr. Murphy made two trips into this interesting 

 region in March 1915, for the purpose of securing specimens of the Lower 

 Californian Pronghorn and other desert animals for the museum of the 

 Brooklyn Institute. In the present paper he presents some general infor- 

 mation about the region, an exceedingly interesting and well illustrated 

 narrative of his trips and an annotated list of the birds, as well as some 

 account of the Pronghorn. 



The list of birds comprises 134 species and includes besides those observed 

 by Mr. Murphy, a number of others which were secured or observed by 

 Mr. Samuel N. Rhoads on a trip through this country in 1905 (Proc. Acad. 

 Nat. Sci. Phila., 1905, pp. 679-690). Mr. Murphy's excellent paper forms 

 a valuable supplement to Dr. Grinnell's recent report on the fauna of the 

 Lower Colorado Valley, farther north. — W. S. 



Batchelder on New Birds from Newfoundland. 2 — An examination 

 of a considerable series of Ovenbirds and Yellow Warblers taken during 

 the breeding season in Newfoundland, has convinced Mr. Batchelder 

 that they are separable subspecifically from individuals from the rest of 

 eastern North America, and he therefore proposes for them the names, 

 Seiurus aurocapillus junior (p. 81) and Dendroica cestiva amnicola (p. 82) 

 respectively. In a general way these new forms are darker in coloration 

 than the ' typical ' races. 



The establishment of very slightly differentiated geographical races in the 

 east will soon bring us face to face with some of the problems that have 

 troubled our friends in California and other parts of the west, in the matter 

 of sight identifications. The advent of a " Brown-headed Chickadee " 

 in the eastern states a year ago, which could not be subspecifically identified 

 without collecting the specimen, caused great speculation as to how obser- 

 vations on the bird should be recorded and as these Newfoundland Oven- 



1 Natural History Observations from the Mexican Portion of the Colorado Desert. By 

 Robert Cushman Murphy. Abstract Proc. Linnsan Soc. of New York, Nos. 24-25, 1917. 

 pp. 43-101, plates I-VI. 



2 Two Undescribed Newfoundland Birds. By Charles Foster Batchelder. Proc. New 

 England Zool. Club, VI, pp. 81-82. February 6, 1918. 



