1889. ] Recent Literature. 333 
treeless ‘Middle Province’ area. It is thus not surprising that the bird 
fauna of the State should include a large proportion of the characteristic 
species of both the East and the West, resulting in an aggregate much 
above that of any area of similar extent situated either east or west 
of this equivocal middle district belt. In the present ‘‘provisional list,” 
designed as a temporary aid in the further careful study of the birds 
of the State, 314 species and subspecies are recorded. The author states 
that the list is based, in addition to his own “‘comparatively meagre” ob- 
servations, upon every source of reliable information, published or unpub- 
lished, open to him, including records published in Baird’s ‘Birds of North 
America,’ Dr. Aughey’s ‘Locust Feeding Birds,’ and the records and col- 
lections of the Normal Science Society, and of various personal friends. 
The list is briefly annotated, and is apparently very carefully compiled. 
It is put forth as merely a temporary, tentative list, to be completed by 
further study of the birds of the State. A number of western forms of 
eastern species which are unquestionably common in the western part of 
the State are omitted. The ‘“‘Zonotrichia gambeli,” given on Baird’s 
authority, is of course the 4. ¢ztermedza of recent authors. With this ex- 
ception we notice no improbable records. Its appearance is somewhat 
marred by its being set ‘solid’ and in small type, and by the use of a capi- 
tal initial letter for each species and subspecies-—matters probably beyond 
the control of the author.—J. A. A. * 
Shufeldt’s Recent Contributions to the Osteology of North American 
Birds.—Since our last notice of Dr. Shufeldt’s contributions to his favorite 
subject numerous papers of his have reached us, including Parts II-IV of 
his ‘Contributions to the Comparative Osteology of Arctic and Sub-arctic 
Water-birds’,* treating of the genera Urza, Synthliborhamphus, Brachy- 
rhamphus, Cepphus, Cerorhinca, Ptychorhamphus, Cyclorrhynchus, and 
Simorhynchus. The osteology of the genus Urza is compared at length 
with that of Adca, previously treated in Part I, while the accompanying 
plates give figures of the principal skeletal parts of Chionis, Hematopus, 
and Larus. Parts III and IV are illustrated with 25 figures in the text. 
In ‘Observations upon the Osteology of the North American Anseres’,+ 
the skeletal structure of our Ducks, Geese, and Swans is. passed in review, 
and illustrated by 30 ‘process’ cuts in the text. Another elaborate me- 
moir treats of the osteology of the Tubinares and Steganopodes,t with 43 
illustrations in the text. The forms treated at greatest length are Oceano- 
droma furcata, Fulmarus glacialis rodgerstz, Diomedea albatrus, Sula 
bassana, Phalacrocorax urile,and Pelecanus fuscus. We have also re- 
ceived Part I of ‘Osteological Studies of the Subfamily Ardeine’.§ In 
* Journ. Anat. & Phys.,Vol. XXXIIT, pp. 165-186, pll. vii-xi; pp. 400-427; pp. 537-558. 
+ Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., 1888, pp. 215-251. 
{ Observations upon the Osteology of the Orders Tubinares and Steganopodes. 
Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., 1888, pp. 253-315. 
~§ Journ. Comp. Med. & Surg., July, 1889. 
