^"Is^'^J Recent Literature. 245 



cases, doubtless, easily learn the names of the game birds tha;t fall before 

 his gun. The few outline figures of bills and feet given in the text must 

 be of service in aiding in the determination. In most cases about a page 

 is devoted to each species, consisting of a more or less detailed description, 

 followed bj remarks on distribution, habits, and quality of the flesh as 

 food. In all 124 species and subspecies are formally treated, beginning 

 with the Loons and ending with the Passenger Pigeon. The few tech- 

 nical inaccuracies here and there need not necessarily detract from the 

 value of the book for the class for which it is intended. — J. A. A. 



Butler on a Century of Changes in the Aspects of Nature in Indiana.' 

 — As the title indicates, this paper is not exclusively ornithological, but 

 contains, among much matter of general interest, several passages that 

 depict the changes in the bird fauna of Indiana due to the occupation of 

 the country by the white man, — the marked decrease or practical extirpa- 

 tion of some species, and the increase and changes in habits of others. 

 Among the species "almost, or in great measure, exterminated" are the 

 Wild Turkey, Bobwhite, Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Black Vulture, Carolina 

 Paroquet, and Passenger Pigeon. Of the latter Mr. Butler writes, after 

 detailing the methods of slaughter : " Less and less the numbers grew^ 

 Trapping and netting, supplemented by repeating guns, added to the 

 power of destruction, and the Pigeons, whose numbers were once so great 

 that no one could conceive the thought of their extinction, have dwindled 

 until they are rarely found. One Pigeon in a year! Soon they will be 

 but a memory " The distruction of birds to supply the demands of 

 fashion also receives attention as one of the causes that have led to their 

 decrease. — J. A. A. 



Elliot's Catalogue of a Collection of Birds from Somali-Land.- — While 

 the main object of Mr. Elliot's expedition into Somali-Land, under the 

 auspices of the Field Columbian Museum, was to procure specimens of 

 the mammals inhabiting that country, quite a collection of birds was also 

 incidentally obtained, a report on which Mr. Elliot has thus promptly 

 published. He states that he was never in a country " where birds were 

 more numerous and tame, and an expedition properly equipped for bird 

 collecting, could procure a very large series of specimens in a very short 

 time." The collection formed by Mr. Elliot's party numbers 125 species, 

 of which 8 are described as new. The annotations include interesting 

 field notes on the habits and relative abundance of many of the species, 

 together with some technical and other notes. — J. A. A. 



'Indiana: A Century of Changes in the Aspects of Nature. By A. W. 

 Butler. Proc. Indiana Acad. Sci., No. V, 1895, PP* 3i~4-- 



'Catalogue of a Collection of Birds obtained by the [Field Columbian 

 Museum] Expedition into Somali-Land. By D. G. Elliot, F. R. S. E. Field 

 Columbian Museum Publication 17. Ornith. Series, Vol. I, No. 2, pp. 29-67. 

 Chicago, Feb., 1897. 



