Recent Literature. 1/3 



Rose-breasted Grosbeak {Goniaphea ludoviciana): The colored plate 

 illustrates the adult male and female, but the sixteen quarto pages (pp. 

 25-40) of text leave the history of the species still unfinished. In noticing 

 Part I (this Bulletin, Vol. V. p. 234) we were compelled to speak unfavor- 

 ably of the literary execution of the work, and regret that the present 

 issue will not permit of more favorable notice. A single sentence, a por- 

 tion of which we may italicize, may serve to point our criticism: "The 

 tender blades of golden hued grasses were gently crowding aside the 

 dead leaves of the preceding autumn, like true lollards of a murmuring 

 //our." (p. 26). As nearly or quite three-fourths of the text consists of 

 quotations from other authors, bearing mainly upon the utility of the 

 Rose-breasted Grosbeak as a destroyer of the Colorado potato beetle, but 

 including also a long extract from Audubon, the not too fastidious reader 

 may find little to often d his taste. — J. A. A. 



Holterhoff's Notes on Western Birds. — These notes, as the title 

 of the paper* indicates, relate to the breeding babits of a few of the lesser 

 known species of Western birds. The observations here recorded were 

 made in Southern California in the spring of 1S80, and have reference to 

 some 40 species, among which are included the Curve-billed Thrushes 

 and the Polioptihv of the region in question, about which, as well as of 

 various other species, much interesting information is communicated. — 

 J. A. A. 



RlDGWAY ON A DUCK NEW TO THE NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. In 



the " Proceedings " of the United States National Museumf, Mr. Ridgway 

 records an immature male Rufous-crested Duck (Fuligula ruji/ia, Steph.) 

 supposed to have been shot on Long Island Sound. The specimen was 

 found in Fulton Market. New York City, some nine years ago by Mr. 

 George A. Boardman. of Calais, Maine, by whom it was then sent to the 

 Smithsonian Institution. The specimen was then looked upon as a hybrid, 

 and was put aside and forgotten. It received no further attention until 

 recently when it was identified by Mr Ridgway as above stated. In 

 making the record Mr. Ridgway takes occasion to describe the species in 

 its various phases of plumage, and adds a few critical remarks on the 

 generic synonymy of the group to which it belongs. — J. A. A. 



Ridgway on the Amazilia yucatanensis (Cabot) %• — This species 

 was not long since referred by Elliot to the A. cervtniventris of Gould. 

 which determination was later accepted by Mr. Ridgway. A comparison 



* A Collector's Notes on the Breeding of a few Western Birds. By E. [/'. c, G.] 

 Holterhoff, Jr. American Naturalist, March, 1881, pp. 208-219. 



t On a Duck new to the North American Fauna. By Robert Ridgway. Proc. U. S. 

 Nat. Mus., April 13, 1881, pp. 22-24. 



X On Amazila yucatanensis { Cabot) and A. cerviniventris, Gould. By Robert 

 Ridgway. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., April 13, 1881, pp. 25, 26, 



