184 



Recent Literature. [April 



family is treated with tlie customary fullness of detail characteristic of 

 his previous memoirs on various species and groups of North American 

 birds. The beautiful plate gives four views of the skull, two of the ster- 

 num, and views of the principal bones of the extremities, all of natural 

 size. The paper is mainly descriptive, but comparisons are made between 

 the species treated and a few allied forms, notably with Charadrius ;pluvia- 

 lis, from which Podasocys montaniis presents slight differences in certain 

 bones of the skull. — ^J. A. A. 



Townsend on the Birds of Westmoreland County, Penn.* — '"The species 

 enumerated represent perhaps not more than two-thirds of the actual birds 

 of Westmoreland County"; the list being based on rather limited oppor- 

 tunities for observation, and restricted to species 'identified with cer- 

 tainty.' The region embraces a portion of Chestnut RiJge, a range of the 

 Alleghanies, extending through the southeastern part of the countv ; but 

 this interesting portion of the field is very imperfectly reported upon. 

 The list, numbering 136 species, is rather too sparingly annotated, espec- 

 ially in respect to the season of sojourn of many of the species ; but we 

 are led to hope that this may be but the forerunner of a fuller report. — 

 J. A. A. 



Bulletin of the Buffalo Naturalists' Field Club. — This, as its title indi- 

 cates, is the organ of the Club whose name it bears. It is a large octavo 

 publication, under the editorial management of D. S. Kellicott, Eugene E. 

 Fish, and Mrs. Dr. Mai-y B. Moody. The paper, typography, and press- 

 work are good, and the general appearance of the magazine is attractive. 

 The first five numbers have been received, and are dated respectively 

 January (double number), March, May, and September, 1883. 



The publication is devoted to general natural history, and contains 

 excellent articles upon various branches of zoology, botany, geology, and 

 anthropology. The first paper in the first number is on the 'Nesting- 

 Habits of Birds,' by E. E. Fish, and contains much of interest to the oolo- 

 gist. Mr. Fish calls attention to the fact that "Several species of birds 

 that nest before the Jeaves are out, choose evergreens for their first brood, 

 and if a second is raised it is generally in a deciduous bush, or tree." He 

 adds : "Last spring the leaves were late in coming out, and of the first 

 hundred nests that I examined, principally of Robins and Chipping-birds, 

 ninety of them were in evergreens ; a month later the number was nearly 

 reversed." A few careless statements have crept in. For example, it is 

 said that the Hummingbird covers the outside of its nest "with little 

 patches of moss." The generic and specific names of the Red-headed 

 Woodpecker are transposed. 



In an article upon 'Field Club Work in Western New York,' Professor 

 Charles Linden mentions, incidentally, the occurrence of the "Eider 

 Duck, King Duck, Velvet Scoter, Old Wife, Trumpeter Swan, Snow 



* Notes on the Birds of Westmoreland County, Penna. By Charles H. Townsend. 

 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1883, pp. 59-68. 



