iSgi-] Recent Literature. lOI 



"on tlie groiiiKi tli:it tin: lioiiii is Ijrowii intstcacl of gray," and adds : "the 

 difffrence is doubtless duo to abrasion." It was doubtless nothing of the 

 kind. The specimen was not at all in abraded plumage as will also be 

 perfectly clear from my original description which says: "Entire head 

 and throat of a dull cinnamon-chocolate, glossed zvit/i lilac on crown and 

 occiput." Mas nnybody ever seen a slate colored ground color change to 

 cinnamon-chocolate glossed with lilac by any sort of abrasion? 



In that same paper I demonstrated beyond the remotest doubt, that 

 Tartar risorias belongs to an entirely different subgenus from that which 

 embraces the wild Japanese Ringed Turtle-dove, and, moreover, that the 

 Barbary Turtle-dove, the true T. risorius, is also found tame in Japan. 

 Yet, without a word of comment, Mr. Seebohm perpetuates the old ami 

 now "unpardonable blunder" (to use a Seebohmian expression). 



Finally, all that Mr. Seebohm knows of the occurrence of Tartar hu- 

 tnilis in Japan is limited to the example obtained by Mr. Ovvston tVom a 

 dealer at Yokohama, in spite of the fact that on pp. 42S-429 {torn, cit.) I 

 gave an elaborate description of a specimen from Nagasaki. 



Before concluding I should like to say a few words of the figures. Be- 

 sides the exquisite woodcuts reprinted from his monograph of the Char- 

 adriidie, we find a number of more or less crude drawings of heads. If 

 the enormous beaks of "' Pratercala" pygincea and pusilla correctly rep- 

 resent Japanese specimens, we have certainly to do with species differing 

 from those occurring in Kamtschatka and /Vlaska, hut that is highly im- 

 probable. The Shags of the species '■'pelagicas" and •■bicristatas" seem to 

 be as much of a stumbling block as ever, in spite of all the reviewer has 

 written and painted about them. The head on p. 210 does certainlv not 

 represent a. pelagicas, and is probably a young bicristatas. The head on 

 p. ill looks much more like a different species than a bicristatus, and 

 unless the drawing is very inaccurate the specimen from which it is taken 

 is something else. 



In reviewing this work I have felt keenly that fault-finding comes with 

 but little grace from one who works in the same special field as the au- 

 thor whose work he criticizes. But, on the other hand, he is expected to 

 speak, because he is supposed to know something about it, antl it then 

 becomes necessary to show neither fear nor favor. Mr. Seebohm himself 

 has never handled his colleagues with gloves, and he himself would 

 be the first one to resent any attempt at establishing a mutual admiration 

 society. — L. Stejneger. 



Warren's Revised Report on the Birds of Pennsylvania.* — The great 

 liemand which arose tor this ' Report' immediately upon the publication 

 of the first edition in iSSS, led the Legislature to order an enlarged and 



* Report I on the | Birds of Pennsylvania. | With Special Reference to the Food- 

 Habits, based on over Four | Thousand Stomach Examinations. | By | B. H. Warren, 

 M. D., I Ornithologist, Pennsylvania Slate Board of Agriculture. | Second Edition, 



Revised and Augumented. | Illustrated by One Hundred Plates. | | Published by 



Authority of the Commonwealth. | | Harrisburg: | E. K. Meyers, State Printer | 



1890. — 8vo. pp. xiv, 434, pll. 100. 



