76 



Recetit Literature. [January 



14. 'I. Regular residents or visitants which intrude from the Westward,' 

 11, of which 4 are "observed only in summer," 3 "only in winter or 

 during migration," and 4 "irrespective of season." 'J. Stragglers and 

 doubtful species, the former including those of which not more than one 

 specimen has been taken or observed,' 14. 'K. Species formerly occur- 

 ring, but possibly not now to be found in the State,' 5. 



The second section of this part treats of the State's "position with regard 

 to Faunal Provinces or Districts." Illinois is considered to lie far within 

 the Eastern, or Atlantic, Province, and were it not for the prairies the fauna 

 would probably not possess the slightest tincturing of western forms.' 

 This last is no doubt very true, but we fail to see why the effect should 

 not be recognized when the cause is so evident. In the same manner we 

 might say that without the southern bottom-lands, which the author 

 further mentions, certain species from the southern portions of the State 

 would not exhibit an approach toward Florida or Gulf Coast forms, which 

 the author states is observable. It seems to us that this eastern extension of 

 the prairies, bringing with it as regular visitants such prairie-loving 

 species as Chondestes grammacus, Ammodramus lecontei, Spizella pal- 

 lida, Sturnella magna neglecta, etc., marks an eastern extension of 

 the Campestrian Sub-province which the author characterizes on page 246. 

 The State is further considered to be "wholly embraced within the 

 'Carolinian Fauna,' " although the author's table 'E' includes among 

 its 44 summer residents of the northern portions of the State at least 40 

 species which are not generally considered to characterize this fauna. 

 With regard to what the author designates "so-called geographical varia- 

 tion," "Illinois likewise belongs strictly to the Eastern or Atlantic Province, 

 none of the resident or summer resident species showing any tendency 

 toward the representative forms which belong to the Western Province, 

 except very rarely or sporadically, and apparently not more frequently 

 than along the Atlantic coast itself," the single exception "being the case 

 of Geothlypis trichas, the Illinois form of which seems to be the western 

 race, G. trichas occidetitalis Brewst., which apparently replaces true G. 

 trichas everywhere west of the Alleghanies,"a statement with which, in this 

 particular case, we cannot agree. Section three of Part II relates to 

 migration, and presents tables, chronologically arranged, showing the 

 times of arrival and departure of transient species, and also the dates of 

 flowering of certain plants and trees. The observations of Messrs. Henshaw 

 and Palmer at Washington, and of Mr. Otto Widmann at St. Louis are 

 here included for comparison with similar observations made by the 

 author at Mount Carmel, Illinois, and Wheatland, Indiana. 



This excellent introduction, containing more valuable information than 

 is usually compassed by an entire volume of this nature, concludes with a 

 bibliography which, from 1853 to 1885, enumerates the titles of 44 publica- 

 tions ^'actually consulted" by the author. 



The remaining 457 pages are devoted to brief biographies, and the sys- 

 tematic treatment of the 216 land birds included in this volume. The 

 nomenclature of the A. O. U. Check-List is adopted, but the order therein 



