Vol. X"l Recent Literature. 200 



"893 J 



astic in the extreme, being always ready to sacrifice everything in the 

 interest of the birds. Professional engagements, however numerous or 

 pressing, had to be postponed or were forgotten when any one was encoun- 

 tered who could impart a new ornithological fact or who indeed but 

 proved to be a good listener when birds were under discussion. He thus 

 acquired a very considerable fund of information bearing upon the avian 

 fauna of his chosen State. His first extended presentation of the results of 

 his observations appeared in the 'Bulletin of the Minnesota Academy of 

 Natural Sciences' for 1874, in the shape of an annotated list of the birds of 

 the State. It was in reality more nearly a list of the birds of Hennepin 

 County, the locality where the author resided. From time to time Dr. 

 Hatch published additional articles in the nature of 'reports of progress* 

 and partial revisions and corrections of the original list. At first these 

 were printed in the Bulletins of the Minnesota Academy. Later, after his 

 appointment to the position of State Ornithologist by the Board of 

 Regents of the University of Minnesota, they appeared in the annual 

 reports of the State Geological and Natural History Survey. In 1880 a 

 second 'List' was published in the Ninth Annual Report of the Survey. 

 The annotations were very brief, and in other respects the list was a disap- 

 pointment to those awaiting its appearance. Not long after this a final 

 and much more voluminous report was promised and the manuscript it 

 now seems was prepared and offered for publication, but for various 

 reasons its appearance has been delayed from time to time until now 

 through the efforts of the present State Zoologist, Prof. Henry F. Nach- 

 trieb, it is presented as No. I of a series of zoological reports which it is 

 intended shall be issued under the supervision of the State Zoological 

 Survey. It was certainly due Dr. Hatch now that he is far advanced in 

 years, no longer a resident of the State, and his long labors in behalf of 

 Minnesota birds probably ended so far at least as any active participation 

 is concerned, that the results of his work should be preserved in perma- 

 nent form by the State in which he labored. The volume has appeared as 

 'Notes' instead of as a 'Report' upon the birds of Minnesota, and is much 

 less pretentious and elaborate in its general make-up than was originally 

 intended. The plan at one time, if the writer is not mistaken, included 

 illustrations. There are none with the present book. 



An analysis of the 'Notes' shows 295 species and 7 varieties formally 

 credited to the State, and several others referred to under other headings 

 as. for example, Chencccrulescens under C. hyperborea and Jutico hyemalis 

 oregonus and Junco annectens under J. kyemalis. Some fifteen species 

 are included upon what would seem to be, in view of the unusual charac- 

 ter of the records, insufficient data. These would have very properly 

 formed a tentative or provisional list. They are : Colymbus nigricollis 

 calif ortiicas, Urinator arcticus, Larus atricilla, Peleca?uis fuscu's, Anas 

 cyanoptera, Somateria spectabilis. Branta nigricans, Nycticorax viola- 

 ceus, Porzana jamaiccnsis, Picoides americanus, Pica pica hudsonica, 

 Corvus ossi/ragus, Virco noveboracensis, Merula migratoria propinqua 

 37 



