286 . Recent Literature. \j% 



and Yellow Palm Warblers; another to the Redpolls, and still another to 

 the incursion of Evening Grosbeaks in 1S90. The puzzling group of 

 Gyrfalcons is also treated at some length, diagnoses being given of the 

 four forms occurring in New England, with notes on their distribution 

 and a reassignment of the New England records, based on a personal 

 examination by Mr. Brewster of nearly all the extant specimens. 



An excellent portrait of the author forms an appropriate frontispiece to 

 the present edition, which also contains a short biographical notice of 

 this remarkable man, who met his death in a railroad accident in Penn- 

 sylvania. November 14, 1S90. {Cf. Auk, VIII, 1S91, p. 121). — J. A. A. 



Degen on the Evolution of the Bird's Wing.' — Mr. Degen finds his 

 text in a feather of the wing which he terms "carpal covert" and 

 ranks with the major cubital series. It is situated at the carpal joint, 

 its exact position varying in different groups, and is apparently not 

 associated with a remex. A vestigial or plumaceous feather is generally 

 found lying beneath it. The late Mr. Wray called attention to these 

 feathers and considered the former to be a median covert while the 

 vestigial feather he classed as the major covert of the first metacarpal 

 remex, — errors which Mr. Degen corrects. Mr. Degen regards this 

 condition as analagous to aquintocubitalism and predicts that a reduced 

 cubital remex may still be found. Assuming that among archornithic 

 birds all the digits bore remiges he reasons that a subsequent fusion of 

 the metacarpals has resulted in a crowding and consequent decrease in 

 number and readjustment in position of the digital remiges and finds 

 here an explanation of both aquintocubitalism and the vestigial carpal 

 remex. 



The paper is a noteworthy contribution to pterylography and should 

 especially appeal to those who seek to find in this branch of ornithology 

 something more than an aid to classification. — F. M. C 



Bulletins 4 and 5 of the Wilson Ornithological Chapter. — Bulletin 

 No. 4- contains the reports of some thirt\- observers, living in as many 

 different localities, on the manner of occurrence and times of migration 

 of about forty-five species of Warblers. The notes are largely' from 

 stations in the upper Mississippi Valley and New England, though one 

 contributor writes from California and another from Texas. Dendroica 

 kirtlandi is recorded from Winnebago County, Illinois, May 25, 1S94, 

 and there are other records of special interest, while the report as a whole 



' On Some of the Main Features in the Evolution of the Bird's Wing. By 

 Edward Degen. Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, II, 1894, pp. ^i,^, pi. I, and 6 figs, in 

 text. 



2 Bulletin No. 4, Wilson Ornithological Chapter of the Agas.siz Association. 

 Record of the work for 1893 and 1894 on the Mniotiltidae. By Lynd Jones, 

 Chairman of the Committee. Oberlin, Ohio, January 15, 1895. i2mo. pp. 22. 



