Vol. XIV 
> « o pe 
1897 Recent Literature. 245 
cases, doubtless, easily learn the names of the game birds that fall before 
his gun. The few outline figures of bills and feet given in the text must 
be of service in aiding in the determination. In most cases about a page 
is devoted to each species, consisting of a more or less detailed description, 
followed by remarks on distribution, habits, and quality of the flesh as 
food. In all 124 species and subspecies are formally treated, beginning 
with the Loons and ending with the Passenger Pigeon. The few tech- 
nical inaccuracies here and there need not necessarily detract from the 
value of the book for the class for which it is intended. —J. A. A. 
Butler on a Century of Changes in the Aspects of Nature in Indiana.' 
— As the title indicates, this paper is not exclusively ornithological, but 
contains, among much matter of general interest, several passages that 
depict the changes in the bird fauna of Indiana due to the occupation of 
the country by the white man, —the marked decrease or practical extirpa- 
tion of some species, and the increase and changes in habits of others. 
Among the species “almost, or in great measure, exterminated” are the 
Wild Turkey, Bobwhite, Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Black Vulture, Carolina 
Paroquet, and Passenger Pigeon. Of the latter Mr. Butler writes, after 
detailing the methods of slaughter: “Less and less the numbers grew. 
Trapping and netting, supplemented by repeating guns, added to the 
power of destruction, and the Pigeons, whose numbers were once so great 
that no one could conceive the thought of their extinction, have dwindled 
until they are rarely found. One Pigeon ina year! Soon they will be 
but a memory.” The distruction of birds to supply the demands of 
fashion also receives attention as one of the causes that have led to their 
decrease. —J. A. A. 
Elliot’s Catalogue of a Collection of Birds from Somali-Land.?—While 
the main object of Mr. Elliot’s expedition into Somali-Land, under the 
auspices of the Field Columbian Museum, was to procure specimens of 
the mammals inhabiting that country, quite a collection of birds was also 
incidentally obtained, a report on which Mr. Elliot has thus promptly 
published. He states that he was never in a country “where birds were 
more numerous and tame, and an expedition properly equipped for bird 
collecting, could procure a very large series of specimens in a very short 
time.” The collection formed by Mr. Elliot’s party numbers 125 species, 
of which 8 are described as new. The annotations include interesting 
field notes on the habits and relative abundance of many of the species, 
together with some technical and other notes. —J. A. A. 
‘Indiana: A Century of Changes in the Aspects of Nature. By A. W. 
Butler. Proc. Indiana Acad. Sci., No. V, 1895, pp. 31-42. 
?Catalogue of a Collection of Birds obtained by the [Field Columbian 
Museum] Expedition into Somali-Land. By D.G. Elliot, F. R.S.E. Field 
Columbian Museum Publication 17. Ornith. Series, Vol. I, No. 2, pp. 29-67. 
Chicago, Feb., 1897. 
