50 Recent Literature. 



Dr. Cones gives us the results of his field-work during the seasons of 1873 

 and 1874 in Northern Dakota and Montana, while acting as naturalist and 

 surgeon to the United States Northern Boundary Commission. The ob- 

 servations relate mainly to the country immediately bordering the forty- 

 ninth parallel, which was surveyed from Pembina, on the Red River, to 

 the Rocky Mountains, or for a distance of about eight hundred and fifty 

 miles. Dr. Coues, in his preliminary remarks, divides the country trav- 

 ersed into three regions, which he terms respectively the " Red River 

 Region," the " Missouri Region," and the " Rocky Mountain Region." 

 The physical and zoological characteristics of these regions are briefly de- 

 tailed, to which is added a tabular enumeration of some of the more con- 

 spicuous birds of the three regions. Then follows a copiously annotated 

 list of all the species observed, with lists of the specimens obtained, accom- 

 panied frequently with measurements. The Missouri Skylark {Neocorys 

 spraguei) very naturally comes in for an extended notice, as do also two 

 species of Longspur (Plectrophanes ornalus and P. maccowni) and Baird's 

 Bunting, relating especially, however, to their respective areas of distribu- 

 tion. At page 648 we notice interesting general remarks on the breeding 

 range of our Geese and Ducks, and concerning the great numbers of indi- 

 viduals that sometimes assemble about the prairie sloughs and mountain 

 pools. It is also noted that partly grown young of the Canvas-back Duck 

 wei'c secured at Turtle Mountain, while young of the Harlequin and Rocky 

 Mountain Golden-eye (Bucephala islandica) were obtained at Chief Moun- 

 tain Lake. Respecting this latter species Dr. Coues says : " This is, I 

 believe, the first recorded instance of the occurrence of this species dur- 

 ing the breeding-season in the United States." Hence it may be worth 

 while to here record that eggs of this species, in the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology, were obtained in Middle Park, Colorado, by Mr. Edwin 

 Carter, June 3, 1877. The paper concludes with a bibliographical ap- 

 pendix of nearly three pages, in which are entered the titles of nearly 

 forty works and papers relating to the ornithology of portions of country 

 adjacent to the foi-ty-ninth parallel. — J. A. A. 



Merrill's Notes ox the Ornithology of Southerx Texas. — 

 Attention has already been called through the pages of the Bulletin to Mr. 

 Sennett's " Notes on the Ornithology of the Lower Rio Grande of Texas." 

 That interesting locality now receives a still more complete overhauling at 

 the hands of Dr. J. C. Merrill, U. S. A.,* who has been stationed for sev- 

 eral years past at Brownsville, Texas. Although to some degree antici- 

 pated by Mr. Sennett's list, as well as by various previously published 

 announcements on the part of the author hinjself, this paper comes to us 



* Notes on the Ornithology of Southern Texas. Being a List of Birds ob- 

 served in the Vicinity of Fort 15rown, Texas, from February, 1876, to June, 

 1878. By James C. Merrill, Assistant Surgeon U. S. Army. Proceedings of 

 United States National Museum, pp. 118-173. 



