364 Recent Literature. IfuW 



Fleming on Migrations of Briinnich's Murre. 1 — Briinnich's Murre is an 

 Arctic species, breeding in North America from the Magdalen Islands, in 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence, northward, and appears to be ordinarily only to a 

 small extent migratory. At intervals, however, it appears in some numbers 

 as far south as Long Island, New York, and occurs as a straggler south to 

 Chesapeake Bay and westward along the Great Lakes. Its appearance 

 at any of these points is usually rare and irregular, but during the last 

 fifteen years there have been several notable invasions of this species. Mr. 

 Fleming has done excellent service in compiling and mapping these migra- 

 tions. His record begins with the winter of 1890-91, when the species 

 appeared in unusual numbers on the New England coast. None were 

 noted for the winter of 1891-92, and only a few for that of 1892-93. In 

 the winter of 1893-94 there was a large migration to the Great Lakes, 

 notable as being their first appearance in this region, while few were seen 

 on the Atlantic coast. The next great migration, and "the most extensive 

 recorded," occurred in the winter of 1896-97, "reaching far down the 

 Atlantic coast and into the interior of eastern North America" — on the 

 coast to North and South Carolina, in the interior to central Indiana. The 

 following winter there was a restricted migration to the St. Lawrence and 

 its tributaries. In 1899-1900 there was again a widespread migration, 

 extending southward along the coast to Virginia, and in the interior to- 

 Lake Ontario. For the following winter the records were few; more were 

 seen in 1901-02, but during the following three winters there was no not- 

 able invasion. 



Mr. Fleming gives reasons for believing that these migrations originate 

 in Hudson Bay, and are caused by lack of food, due to the closing in of the 

 moving and shore ice, thus depriving them of access to open water. They 

 usually arrive in an emaciated condition, and, visiting regions "unsuited 

 to sustain the life of a bird whose food is marine," it seems probable that 

 none of the thousands of birds that make the unusual journey ever return 

 to their place of origin. Two maps illustrate Mr. Fleming's excellent 

 paper, one showing the places of record for the species from 1890 to 1903, 

 and the other for the great migration of 1896. — J. A. A. 



Lass's Bird Life of a City Garden.' 2 — This is a list of birds observed in a 

 city garden in Charleston, S. C, based on records made in 1902-06, inclu- 

 sive, and numbers 90 species. Some are common summer residents and 

 breeders in the garden; others are transient visitors or are noted as merely 

 passing over, as in the case of some of the larger hawks, herons, etc. The 

 list is naturally of much local interest, and was published largely for the 



1 The Unusual Migration of Briinnich's Murre ( Uria lomvia) in Eastern North 

 America. By J. H. Fleming. Proc. IVth Internat. Orn. Congress, 1905 (1906), 

 pp. 528-543, with two maps. 



2 Bird Life of a City Garden. By Herbert Ravenal Lass. Bull, of College of 

 Charleston Museum, Vol. II, No. 7, November, 1906, pp. 57-66. 



