° 1914 J Recent Literature. 263 



damental layer in both cases is colored with oocyanin. This gives some idea 

 of the thorough study of the shell structure and coloration that Mr. Lechner 

 has conducted, a line of investigation which has been utterly neglected by 

 American ' oologists ' but one well worthy of pursuit if they would sub- 

 stantiate the claim that their large series of egg shells are collected for the 

 benefit of 'science.' One can readily appreciate how such investigations 

 may yield data of much phylogenetic value. We congratulate Mr. Lechner 

 upon the character of his work and upon its progress towards completion, 

 while the publisher deserves the highest credit for a beautiful piece of 

 book-making. — W. S. 



Phillips on African birds. — Drs. J. C. Phillips and G. M. Allen spent 

 two months beginning December 25, 1912, on the Blue-Nile and Binder 

 River, in Sennar, Sudan, and obtained a collection of 340 birds, represent- 

 ing 150 species. A briefly annotated list of these is published by Dr. 

 Phillips in the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology,^ with a 

 short account of the trip. Descriptions of two new forms, Caprimulgus 

 eleanorce and Passer domesticus chephreni were described previously,^ while 

 in the present number of ' The Auk ' appears an article on the author's im- 

 pressions of the bird life of the Sudan and a color plate of the new Nightjar. 



Dr. Phillips found the mid-winter bird-hfe, especially at the mountain at 

 FazogU, far less rich and varied than has been reported by summer visitors 

 and evidently, as he points out, there must be considerable local seasonal 

 movements among the resident species. — W. S. 



Bunker on the Birds of Kansas. — During the years 1911 and 1912, 

 Messrs. C. D. Bunker and T. A. Rockland made extensive explorations 

 along the south, west and north borders of Kansas, collecting about 1700 

 skins in forty-one different counties. Meanwhile, Miss Arta Briggs has 

 carefully reidentified the collection of birds in the University of Kansas 

 Museum and brought the nomenclature up to date. Eight forms new to 

 the state list were obtained on the field trips, while Miss Briggs has detected 

 twenty-seven species and subspecies not contained in Prof. Snow's last edi- 

 tion of this ' List of the Birds of Kansas,' pubUshed in 1903. These have 

 been incorporated in the new hst of Kansas birds ^ which Mr. Bunker, 

 assisted by Miss Briggs and Mr. Dix Teachenor, here presents and which 

 has been brought up to date in matters of nomenclature though primarily 



> Notes on a Collection of Birds from the Sudan. By John C. Phillips. Bull. 

 Mus. Comp. Zool. Vol. LVIII, No. 1, pp. 1-27. December. 1913. 



»Two New African Birds. By John C. Phillips. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 

 Vol. XXVI, pp. 167-168. Jime 30, 1913. 



' The Birds of Kansas. By C. D. Bunker, of the University of Kansas Mu- 

 seum. Kansas Univ. Sciences, Bull. VII, No. 5, June, 1913, pp. 137-158. An 

 inserted sUp states that " equal credit should be given to Miss Arta Briggs and 

 Dix Teachenor for this publication." 



