138 Recent Literature. 



author draws the line between the Pacific and Middle Provinces at about 

 the eastern foot of the Sierras, deducing this conclusion mainly from the 

 examination of material collected in the neighborhood of Carson and 

 among the eastern foothills of the Sierras. The full results of the 

 season's work are given in two detailed lists, entitled, respectively, " List 

 of Birds observed near Carson City, Nevada, from August 25 to Septem- 

 ber 16, and from November 10 to November 20, 1876, with Notes," and 

 " List of Birds observed on the Eastern Slope of the Sierras, near Carson 

 City, Nevada, from September 16 to November 7, with Notes." The an- 

 notations in both of these lists are in most cases very brief, but some' of 

 them possess considerable interest and value. The announcement of the 

 occurrence of Dendrocygna fulva in large flocks at Washoe Lake early 

 in the year 1877 is especially worthy of attention. Their appearance in 

 such large numbers is considered by Mr. Henshaw as exceptional, but he 

 regards it as " by no means unlikely that future investigations will show 

 the bird to be a regular summer resident of such portions of this region as 

 are suited to its needs." Among the species occurring upon the eastern 

 slope of the Sierras, Turdus ncevius is here given for the first time, but 

 unfortunately upon somewhat questionable grounds. The genus Pas- 

 serella is again overhauled, and in the light of more recent investigations 

 a somewhat diff"erent and apparently more substantial arrangement decided 

 upon. The three Western forms, schistacea, toicnsendi, and megarhyncha, 

 stand as varieties of iliaca, — a disposition which, we believe, represents 

 Mr. Henshaw's present views upon the subject. — W. B. 



Allen's Birds *of Massachusetts.* — It is seldom that one meets 

 with a local catalogue more thoroughly satisfactory in all essential respects 

 than the present one. Careful, conservative, almost to a fault, and as 

 nearly exhaustive as may be possible, in regard to data, authorities, and 

 evidence, in the, cases of rare or irregular visitors, it is a model as to what 

 a local list should be. Of course it is not yet quite perfect, for that feature 

 was not to be looked for, but it is sufficiently so for all ordinary purposes. 

 The data that have escaped the author's keen researches are few indeed 

 and generally not important, while very many are now published for the 

 first time. 



The first portion of this list presents the names of three hundred and 

 sixteen species of ascertained occurrence in Massachusetts, not one of 

 which can be challenged. This number might even be increased if several 

 forms were recognized as having what the present writer considers their 

 legitimate specific value. About one hundred and thirty-five are marked 

 as breeding within the State, and this number might also be somewhat 

 extended, to the writer's positive knowledge. Dendrceca striata, for instance, 



* A List of the Birds of Massachusetts, with Annotations, by J. A. Allen. 

 Bulletin of the Essex Institute, Vol. X, pp. 3-37, April, 1878. 



