302 Recent Literature. \_\^^\ 



sin ornithology, as regards occurrence and abvmdance, up to date, and to 

 present a carefully compiled list of all those species and subspecies which 

 have positively been known to occur within the limits of the State at any 

 time, with as exact, simple, reliable and accurate an account of such occur- 

 rence as possible." " Starting in 1899, with a list of 365 species and sub- 

 species that had been recorded from, or were supposed to have occurred 

 at some time within the State, the number has fallen away from time to 

 time, until now we recognize but 357 in all, that we believe are really 

 entitled to a place, and are therefore embraced in the list proper of the 

 present paper." 



The list proper is followed by a 'Hypothetical List' of 21 species. 

 Several of these have been attributed to the State, but on what the authors 

 consider unsatisfactory evidence. In several cases, if not in most, their 

 occurrence in the State is not improbable, and therefore the rigid conserva- 

 tism that has led the authors to exclude them, and thus draw a sharp line 

 between the known and the unknown, is to be emphatically commended. 

 Specimens difficult of determination appear to have often been referred 

 to experts for identification. Thus a number of western forms, included 

 on the basis of one or two specimens taken in the State, rest on the author- 

 ity of Mr. Brewster, as Empidonax traillii, Jiinco tnojttanus., Hylocichla 

 ustulattis ahncB, etc. 



Among the half-tone plates is one showing ' Nest and Eggs of Blue- 

 winged X Nashville Warbler,' with a statement in the text of the evidence 

 for the belief in this alleged strange parentage. It is also stated that the 

 Short-eared Owl is destructive " to smaller birds during the breeding sea- 

 son," and a list of some thirty species is given of victims identified from 

 wing and tail feathers taken from a mass of such debris on which a 

 family of young owls was resting. 



It is only necessary to add that the list is liberally and judiciously anno-' 

 tated, that the authors appear to have strictly adhered to the plan outlined 

 in the foregoing extracts from their prefatory note, and have thus given to 

 the public a resum^ of Wisconsin ornithology entitled to take its place, for 

 accuracv and authoritativeness, in the front rank of local lists. The paper 

 is well printed, and exceptionally free from typographical errors, notwith- 

 standing the lamented death of the senior author, Mr. Kumlien, before the 

 manuscript was completed, and the absence of the junior author, Mr. Hol- 

 lister, in Alaska while the paper was passing through the press. — J. A. A. 



Silloway's 'The Birds of Fergus County, Montana.'i — Fergus County, 



1 The Birds of Fergus County, Montana. .By P. M. Silloway, Member of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union, Author of Sketches of Some Common Birds, 

 Summer Birds of Flathead Lake, etc. Bulletin No. i, Fergus County Free 

 High School, Lewistown, Mont., 1903. Svo, pp. 77, 17 half-tone plates and 

 map. 



