'^°|g^''] Recent Literature. 379 



or eight miles in diameter. To the incomplete and misleading records of 

 migration on land Mr. Loomis attributes what he considers to be the false 

 statement that voung birds migrate in advance of the adults. His own 

 experience, as given in both this and other papers, would seemingly 

 prove that in this country the contrary was true, and he says: "The 

 mere occurrence of the young in a given locality before the presence of 

 adults has been detected proves nothing beyond the bare fact that the 

 young were observed there earlier than the adults. It does not prove that 

 they left the region of their birth in advance of their parents, any more 

 than the habitual absence in a localitv of a species breeding to the north- 

 ward and wintering to the southward of it, proves that the species does 

 not migrate." Mr. Loomis thus agrees with most American students of 

 migration on this much discussed question of leadership, but on the other 

 hand we have Herr Gatke asserting positively from Heligoland: " i. That 

 under normal conditions in the case of the three hundred and ninety-six 

 species occurring here, with the exception of a single one, the autumn 

 migration is initiated by the young birds, from about six to eight weeks 

 after leaving their -nests. 2. That the parents of these j^oung individuals 

 do not follow till one or two months later. . . ." 



Beginning on June 16, Mr. Loomis gives a daily record of the move- 

 ments of birds down the coast, showing the influence of general and local 

 climatic conditions on the numbers of birds and direction of flight. This 

 is followed by a summary and an annotated list of the forty-four species 

 of which specimens were taken. Brachyramphtis hypoleucus and Ster- 

 corarius longicaudus are here recorded for the first time from California. 

 Mr. Loomis has selected a comparatively little known field in which to 

 prosecute his studies, and we trust that this valuable and suggestive paper 

 may be followed by many others from his pen. — F. M. C 



Ridgway's Ornithology of Illinois.' — An extended review of the first 

 volume of this work- suificiently explains its object and character. The 

 present volume is devoted to the game and water birds, and concludes the 

 'Descriptive Catalogue.' Some 139 species ai-e included, which, added 

 to the 216 given in the first volume, make the total for the State 355. 

 The occurrence of the following species, however, lacks confirmation : 

 Lagopus lagopus, Ardca rufescens, Megalestris skua, Stercorarius poiiia- 

 rinus, Larus argeniatus, Xema sabiitii, Sterfta maxima, and Urinator 

 arcticus. Mr. Ridgway's faith in Ardea zvuerdmannii of the A. O. U. 



' Natural History Survey of Illinois, | State Laboratory of Natural History, 

 I S. A. Forbes, Director. | The | Ornithology | of Illinois | — | Part I, De- 

 scriptive Catalogue, | By Robert Ridgway. | Volume II. | Part i. | — | Pub- 

 lished by authority of the State Legislature. | — | Springtiekl, 111. | H. ^Y. 

 Rokker, Printer and Binder. | 1895. ^o)'- S^°- PP- -^- ' P^^- ^^"■ 

 2 Auk, VII, Jan. 1890, pp. 74-77. 



