112 Recent Literature. 



Quails were destroyed in a single year. He also refers to the great destruc- 

 tion of tlie eggs and young of birds by the prairie fires in the month of 

 June, and recommends that the burning of the prairies later than the 

 middle of April or the first of May should be prohibited by stringent legis- 

 lation. Referring to the destruction of bird-life by this cause he says : " In 

 June, 1869, I passed over a small portion of AVayne County behind a 

 raging prairie fire. In one hour I found ruined nests of 13 Prairie-Chick- 

 ens, 9 Quail, 5 Plover, and three others that I did not recognize. In some 

 seasons many thousands of nests are destroyed in this way." 



He also alludes to the wholesale destruction of Blackbirds by poison, 

 formerly practised, under the mistaken notion that they were damaging 

 the crops. About the year 18G5, and for some years previous to this date, 

 this mode of destruction prevailed to an alarming degree, to which not only 

 Blackbirds, but many other species, fell victims, and appi'eciably decreased 

 in numbers in consequence. He says it was not unusual to see " piles of 

 them " that had been gatliered in the cornfields. He estimates that in 

 " a single autumn, in Dakota County alone, not less than 30,000 birds must 

 have been destroyed in this way." He believes that sooner or later the 

 protection of useful birds should become not only a national, but an inter- 

 national matter, since, owing to the migratory habits of the species, wide 

 areas are affected by the excessive destruction of birds at particular points. 

 — J. A. A. 



Langdon's Revised List of Cincinnati Birds.* — About two years 

 ago Mr. Langdon published a catalogue of the birds of the vicinity of Cincin- 

 nati, with notes, including 279 species. The jjresent revision of the subject 

 gives the numerous additional facts which have meanwhile become known to 

 the author, and in recognition of which the list has been entirely remodelled, 

 " to represent the present state of our knowledge of' Cincinnati Birds,' so far 

 ' as their local distribution is concerned, as well as the later conclusions of the 

 most approved authorities in respect to classification and nomenclature." 

 The list is chiefly based upon collections and observations made at two or 

 three points between the Great and Little Miami Rivers, within ten or 

 twelve miles of the Ohio. The breeders, known or inferred, are marked 

 with the asterisk or obelisk. The 256 identified species are of the follow- 

 ing categories: Constant residents, 27; summer residents, 62; winter 

 visitants, 10; regular migrants, 82 ; irregular migrants, 37; casual visit- 

 ants, 31 ; species that have disappeared within forty years, 7. There are 

 also included 26 " species of probable occurrence, not yet identified," nearly 

 or quite all of which seem likely to be found. The List is annotated through- 

 out with the usual and proper comments on each species, and is concluded 



* A Revised List of Cincinnati Birds. By Frank W. Langdon. 8vo. pamph. 

 repaged pp. 27, 200 copies, from Journ. Cincinnati See. Nat. Hist., Vol. I, 

 No. 4, Jan. 1879, pp. 1(57-193. 



