1889. ] Recent Literature. oar 
John Cassin, in 1869, the Academy’s collection of birds, though so im- 
portant and valuable, has had no proper curator, and has consequently 
suffered from neglect and disuse. We are, however, pleased to learn that 
it has escaped serious harm from insect pests, and is now in the hands of 
an energetic and efficient worker who, as an assistant curator of the 
Museum, is especially in charge of the birds, and is not only bringing 
them into an orderly condition, but making known the contents of the 
collection. 
The ‘Catalogue’ under notice enumerates 156 species, or about three 
eighths of all the known species of the family Muscicapide, represented 
by 502 specimens, including the types of 34 species. The specimens are 
not formally enumerated, generally merely the localities being given from 
which the species are represented, with here and there a few critical 
remarks respecting the status of certain forms, and on interesting phase 
of plumage. In the main the nomenclature and arrangement of Mr. 
Sharpe’s ‘Catalogue’ of the family (Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IV) is followed. 
In a former paper* Mr. Stone has given his reasons for believing the 
Pratincola salax Verr. = P. sybtlla (Linn.). Weare pleased to learn that 
similar ‘Catalogues’ of other families may be soon expected.—J. A. A. 
Bergtold’s List of the Birds of Buffalo and Vicinity.+ — This briefly 
annotated list numbers 237 species and subspecies. Says the author: 
‘The present purpose is to record the name of every bird known to occur 
or to have occurred in this locality....The names of no species have 
been admitted when the least shade of doubt existed as to the authenticity 
of their occurrence. In order to be authentic a bird must either have 
been taken and identified by competent persons, or if seen alive and not 
taken, must have been of such easy recognition as to exclude the slightest 
uncertainty regarding its determination.” Acknowledgments of indebt- 
edness are made in the preface to various observers, and in cases where 
species are admitted on the authority of others, the name of the authority 
is given asa part of the record. The arrangement and nomenclature is 
that of the A. O. U. Check-List. 
Among the records of special interest is the capture of the Skua (Mega- 
lestris skua) on Niagara River in the spring of 1886, by Prof. Chas. Lin- 
den, anda pair of Evening Grosbeaks (Coccothraustes vespertina) taken 
in 1886. by B. W. Fenton. The Carolina Chickadee (Parus carolinensis) 
is given as a straggler. The Yellow-crowned Night Heron (WVycficorax 
violaceus) and Wilson’s Plover (#gvalitis wilsonta) are recorded as 
migrants, on the authority of Prof. Linden. It would be of interest to 
know whether specimens of these two species taken near Buffalo are 
* On Pratincola salax Verr. and Allied Species. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1889, 
pp. 78-80. 
+A List of the Birds of Buffalo and Vicinity. By W. H. Bergtold, M. D., Presi- 
dent of the Buffalo Naturalists’ Field Club, etc. Reprinted from the Bulletin of the 
Buffalo Naturalists’ Field Club of the Buffalo Society of Natural Science. Buffalo, 
N. Y., 1889, 8vo. pp. 21. 
