446 



Recent Literature. [,^"J^ 



one. after the other as in the case of the 'remicle' and other dhninutive 

 coverts . . . ." 



As to the question of ' diastataxy,' the author believes that the present 

 inquiry " supplies proof that ' faulting ' is not confined alone to diastataxic 

 \vings, but takes place, though in inferior degree, in the short-armed 

 eutaxic forms of birds, such as the Passeres." — J. A. A. 



Weed's Bibliography of Economic Ornithology. — As the title states, 

 this is only a "partial bililiography " of the subject to which it relates,' 

 but as such it is disappointing as well in what it contains. Beginning 

 with Wilson, 1S0S-14, we have listed a miscellaneous assortment cf 

 o-eneral works, as those of Bonaparte, Audubon, Nuttall, etc., and of 

 special papers dealing often in only a slight or incidental way with the 

 food habits of birds, while a number of 'reports' and papers treating 

 especially of such matters are omitted. While a large part of the titles 

 cited are more or less pertinent, we find no reference to several of the 

 most important papers and reports that treat especially of the economic 

 relations of Birds. In preparing the bibliography of such a subject, it is 

 difficult to properly adjust the line of exclusion, but the omission of 

 some of the most important titles seems to imply lack of care in compila- 

 tion. — J. A. A. 



Howe and Sturtevant's Revised List of the Birds of Rhode Island.- — 



This brochure of 24 pages "endeavors to bring up to date the present 

 knowledge of Rhode Island avifauna, and to correct that work [the 

 original list, published in 1899] both in misstatements and typographi- 

 cal errors." 'Part I,' of two pages, contains a note by Mr. James M. 

 Southwick on the collection of Rhode Island birds presented to the 

 Museum of Natural History at Roger Williams Park, Providence, by the 

 late Charles H. Smith, which is stated to contain 292 species, repre- 

 sented by 480 specimens. Then follows ' Part II,' a ' Revised Annotated 

 List of the Birds of Rhode Island,' numbering 2S3 species, besides 3 

 entered as "extirpated," and 8 as hypothetical. Several species of the 

 orio-inal list are ' dropped', and five are now added. Mr. Howe need- 

 lessly proposes (p. 22, footnote) the new generic name Paulojiiagiis for 

 the House Wren ! — J- A. A. 



1 A Partial Bibliography of the Economic Relations of North Ameiican 

 Birds. By Clarence M. Weed. New Hampshire College Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, Technical Bulletin No. 5. Durham, N. H., 1902. Svo, 



PP- 139-179- 



2 A Supplement to the Birds of Rhode Island. By Regmald lleber 

 Howe, Junior, and Edward Sturtevant. Svo, pp. 24. Middletown, Rhode 

 Island, 1903. 



