176 



OKOTTHOLOGIST 



[Yol. 12-No. 10 



a slender branch, I espied a frail looking nest, 

 very much like that of a Cuckoo's, only larger. 

 Climbing up, and carefully working my Avay 

 out, with the aid of several higher limbs, I 

 reached the nest. Three young— j ust hatched — 

 and two eggs were the contents. The nest was 

 nothing but a platform of twigs, no lining be- 

 ing visible. The eggs were of the usual size, 

 of a light blue color, and spotless ; in fact the 

 same shade as those of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. 

 Under the tree I found six half-shells, which 

 corresponded with those in the nest in size and 

 color. 



I believe this to be the second, possibly the 

 thii'd set of eggs deposited by this bird this 

 season. The former nest, or nests, having 

 probably been disturbed, and the eggs taken by 

 some of our enterprising collectors. 



Publications Received. 



The Connecticut Warbler in Conn. 



BY H. W. FLINT, NEW HAVEN, CONN. 



The past season (fall 1887) has been excep- 

 tionally productive, having furnished me with 

 a species of Warbler "new" to my collection, 

 viz : Oporornis agilis. I have secured two 

 specimens this fall and a friend of mine shot a 

 fine male while we were collecting on the after- 

 noon of Sept. 26. Also had the pleasure of 

 taking on Sept. 24th an adult male Tennessee 

 Warbler. Have found this species but once 

 before (May 22nd, 1878) and my experience of 

 about fifteen years active collecting would jus- 

 tify the remark, "very rare" as applied to this 

 bird. 



With the exception of the Cape May, I have 

 now collected all the Warblers that can be said 

 to occur regularly in Connecticut, including 

 two fine specimens of Hel. Leucubronchialis 

 taken several years ago, and hope to add the 

 missing one ere long. 



Mr. Josiah Iloopes, of West Chester, Penn., 



has been fortunate, lately, in being able to add 



to his fine collection of eggs large sets of three 



species of Kites. Of both the Swallow-tailed 



Kite, {Elanoides forficatus) and the Mississippi 



Kite, (Ictinia subcm'ulea) he has obtained sets 



of three eggs, collected by J. A. Singley in 



Texas ; while of the White-tailed Kite, (Elanus 



glaucus) he has secured the set of five, formerly 



in the collection of Harry G. Parker, which 



has unfortunately been scattered to the four 



winds. 



J. P. N. 



Bidgvmy's Ilanual of North American Birds 

 has been received from the publishers, Messrs. 

 J. B. Lippincott Co. of Philadelphia. It is a 

 volume of 630 pages, erratically margined, print- 

 ed in brevier, in body text on fair quality book 

 paper. Its index is not as complete or availa- 

 ble as a little more care would have made it. 

 One hundred and twenty-two full page outline 

 plates on fine heavy finish paper, give credit- 

 able aid in the description of nearly all the 

 species mentioned in text. 



The literary work of the author scarcely 

 needs comment. This volume shows his best 

 effort spurred by a laudable endeavor to show 

 respect for his late associate whose excellent 

 likeness serves as a frontispiece. 



Following the A. O. U. classification the 

 work presents in that order a list of all our 

 known North American birds and in addition a 

 brief description of the eggs of each genus. 

 The description of the characters of each genus 

 and the more minute individual particulars is 

 conducted in a style rather more technical than 

 necessary. In certain portions it almost needs 

 an elementary preface that it may be compre- 

 hended by a large class of readers. The (cor- 

 rectness of its descriptions is commendable and 

 for that alone the book should not suffer by 

 criticism. 



The foot notes to the text are none too fre- 

 quent, and ably assist with ready explanation 

 of otherwise doubtful assertions or references. 



F. H. C. 



Cone's Key to North American Birds. This 

 long promised third edition has at last been 

 issued. It is a verbatim reprint of the second 

 edition with an appendix of thirty pages, "ex- 

 hibiting the nomenclature of the American Or- 

 nithologist's Union check-list in comparison 

 with that of the Key, and including descrip- 

 tions of additional species, etc." In our opin- 

 ion this well known work presents the best 

 description of our North American birds to 

 date and it should not suffer by its non-con- 

 formity to the A. O. U. code in the body of 



text. 



F. H. C. 



American Naturalist, September. 



Ottawa Naturalist, October. 



Trans. N. Y. Acad, of Science 1881-1883. 



Forest and Stream. 



Scientific American. 



