zJ02 Recent Literature. fj^jy 



Huachuca Mountains form a well-wooded range, extending for about 

 fortj miles in a northeast-southwest direction, in the southeastern cor- 

 ner of Arizona, their southern extremity extending across the boundary 

 into Mexico. The base level is about 4500 feet, and the higher central 

 peaks rise to an altitude of about 10,000 feet. These mountains have 

 often been visited bj collectors, but hitherto little has been published on 

 the birds of the region. The results here recorded are based on three 

 trips made bj Mr. Swarth, respectively, in 1896 (April 25 to July 20), in 

 1902 (March 29 to September 5), and in 1903 (February 17 to May 30). 

 On the first expedition he was accompanied by Messrs. W. B. Judson, 

 H. G. Rising, and O. W. Howard, and the season was spent in Ramsey 

 Canon ; in 1902 he was again accompanied by Mr. Howard, but in 1903 

 he was unaccompanied. "Almost all the collecting was done on the 

 east side of the mountains, in the seven canyons from Tanner to Ash 

 Canyon, by far the best part of the range, ornithologically considered." 

 The basis of the present paper is a collection of about 2500 skins, collected 

 personally by Mr. Swarth, and the field notes made therewith. An intro- 

 duction of three pages, descriptive of the physical features of the region, 

 is followed by a systematic list of the species, one hundred and ninety- 

 five in number. The annotations range from a few lines to a couple of 

 pages for each species, according to their interest, ainounting in some 

 cases to quite full biographies. 



Mr. Swarth believes that Melaiicrpes formicivorus aculeatus Mearns is 

 entitled to recognition as a subspecies, and that Phalcenoftilus nuttalli 

 7iitidiis is probably only a color phase of tiuttalli. — J. A. A. 



Bartsch on the Herons of the District of Columbia. 1 — Nine species of 

 Herons have been recorded from within the District of Columbia, eight 

 of which are of regular occurrence. The Black-crowned Night Heron is 

 the most abundant, of which there are three breeding colonies within the 

 District and another just outside its borders. A detailed and very 

 interesting account of these colonies occupies the greater part of the 

 paper. Two of them were carefully investigated in 1902, and an estimate 

 made of tlieir population, from which it appears that probably eighty- 

 eight young were raised that season in the smaller colony and very nearly 

 four hundred in the other. The Little Blue Heron is also numerous, in 

 company with which may often be seen the Snowv Heron and the Ameri- 

 can Egret. Next to the Night Heron, the Little Green Heron is the 

 most abundant breeder. Foiu- of the seven half-tone plates illustrate the 

 nesting haunts, eggs, and young of the Night Heron, one shows different 

 stages of the young of the Green Heron, and one (with six figures) the 



^ Notes on the Herons of the District of Columbia. By Paul Bartsch. 

 Smithsonian Misc. Collections, Vol. XLV, pp. 104-111, pll. xxxiii-xxxviii. 

 (Dated "Dec. 9, 1903," but published two months or more later.) 



