38 Recent Literature. 



PicHS horealis, Vieillot, is the accepted designation of our Red- 

 cockaded Woodpecker. Yet, so far from being a boreal bird, it is 

 the most southern of all the Woodpeckers occurring east of the 

 Mississippi River. The species has not, moreover, any southern 

 representative, so that the designation is glaringly false " in all 

 that the name implies," and should give place to the very suitable 

 one of querulns, imposed b}-^ Wilson only three years later. 



One of the most characteristic birds of Florida — the Limpkin or 

 Crying-Bird — was named, in 1828, liailus giganteus by Bona- 

 parte. If really a Rail, the name giganteus would be truly appro- 

 priate. But since it is not a Rail, and especially since the only 

 other known species of the genus is decidedly larger, the term gi- 

 ganteus is, to say the least, objectionable. 



Other examples among North American birds might be cited, but 

 the above are sufficient for the present purpose. 



Ingersoll's Nests and Eggs of American Birds.* — While it 

 gives us pleasure to record the progress of this meritorious work, we regret 

 to perceive that the parts continue to appear without dating, or any indi- 

 cation whatever of the time of their publication ; and that textual refer- 

 ences to the figures of the plates are still insufficiently exphcit. These are 

 grave defects in a work aspiring to a permanent place in the literature of 

 American Ornithology — in one which will undoubtedly secure such place 

 through the zeal and ability with which the text is prepared ; and we still 

 hope that the publisher will find it neither beneath his dignity nor incom- 

 patible with his interests to comply with the requirements of a case so 

 obvious as this. 



Otherwise we have, as on a previous occasion, nothing to say except in 

 praise of the jjlan and purpose of this work, and of the fidelity with which 

 the author continues his labors. Mr. Ingersoll has his subject well in 

 hand now ; he confines himself strictly to the announced scope of the 



* Nests and Eggs of American Birds. By Ernest Ingersoll. S. E. Cassino, 

 Naturalist's Agency, Salem, Mass. 8vo. Part II, pp. 25-48, Pll. iii, iv, 

 pub. Aug., 1879. Part III, pp. 49-72, Pll. v, vi, pub. Oct., 1879. 



