352 Recent Literature. \xwi. 



species but also notes on their food and nesting habits, with special refer- 

 ence to "the economic importance of the various species." This 'Bulletin,' 

 like the others of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, is dis- 

 tributed "free to all newspapers in the State, and to such individuals in- 

 terested in farming as may request it." It is thus intended to be educational 

 in a broad sense. While, unlike several other recent State publications on 

 ornithology, it does not attempt to give descriptions of the species, it 

 contains numerous excellent illustrations of prominent types of most of 

 the leading groups, taken (with permission of the publishers) from Dr. 

 Coues's well-known 'Key to North American Birds.' While perhaps 

 scarcely a model in point of literary execution, it contains a vast amount 

 of information especially valuable to the people of Michigan, and much 

 that is of interest to ornithologists at large, particularly as regards the 

 distribution of a large number of species within the State. 



The number of species attributed to the State is 332, but of these a num- 

 ber are admitted provisionally, and with expressions of doubt as to their 

 actual occurrence. The list is thus not a hard-and-fast list of birds strictly 

 known to have been taken in the State, but includes a number of improb- 

 able records, as notably the six species of Alcidre. It would have been 

 better to have excluded all such from the main list and to have made of 

 them a separate, tentative list. Yet, as the alleged evidence is always 

 given 'for what it may be worth,' the real facts in the case are apparent. 

 In the 'Introduction' 21 other species are mentioned as having been re- 

 corded from Michigan, but upon unsatisfactory evidence. Yet several of 

 them are as likely to occur as stragglers as are a number of the doubtful 

 ones which are retained and formally enumerated as a part of the list. 



In the quite extended annotations there is often much reiteration, and 

 not unfiequently statements by different authorities that are directly con- 

 tradictory, which must be the source of some bewilderment to the inex- 

 perienced student. 



The list proper is preceded by a transcript of all the Michigan game 

 laws relating to birds, and by a very full bibliography of Michigan orni- 

 thology, the latter alone occupying 14 closely printed pages; there is also 

 a full index giving both the vernacular and technical names. As already 

 said, the work is well adapted for the chief end in view, and is besides a 

 welcome contribution to the literature of North American ornithology. — 

 J. A. A. 



Averill's List of the Birds of Bridgeport, Conn. 1 — Mr. Averill's List is 

 "intended to include all species of birds known to occur in a wild state 

 within ten miles of Bridgeport." Many species are admitted from Linsley's 

 well-known 'Catalogue of the Birds of Connecticut,' as recorded from 



'List of Birds | found in the vicinity of | Bridgeport, Connecticut. | — | Prepared for 

 the I Bridgeport Scientific Society | by | C. K. Averill, Jr. | — | January, 1892. | — | 

 Bridgeport, Conn. : | Buckingham & Brewer, Printers. | 1892. — 8vo., pp. 19. 



