IQo Recent Literafure. LApril 



the moment their extreme rarity on this coast business matters would 

 have been cast aside. Mr. A. W. Anthony of San Diego, on being noti- 

 fied by letter of the presence of this species succeeded in shooting several 

 specimens off San Diego Bay. Since then Mr. L. M. Loomis has taken 

 one specimen on Monterey Bay, and I believe this completes the record 

 for this coast. 



Cyanocephalus cyanocephalus. Pinon Jay. — In December, 1895, a 

 large flock of these birds located in the vicinity of Pacific Grove, 

 Monterey Co., Cal. This flock made a tour of the town nearly every day 

 that I was there, flying from one pine tree to another and sometimes 

 alighting on the ground, but never staying in one spot more than a 

 minute or two. The oldest inhabitants could not remember having seen 

 these birds before nor having heard their peculiar cries. I succeeded in 

 securing six specimens, all females. From what observations I could 

 make during their restless movements I should say that the majority, 

 if not all, of this flock were females. 



Larus canus. Mew Gull. — There is in our collection an adult of this 

 species taken upon San Francisco Bay, Cal., some years ago. Unfortu- 

 nately, however, the label was accidentally torn off in moving the collec- 

 tion, arid at that time no systematic record of specimens was kept. — 

 Joseph Mailliard, San Geronimo, Marin Co., Cal. 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



'Audubon and His Journals.'' — In the brief space of 73 pages Miss 

 Audubon has given the public for the first time a trustworthy biographj- 

 of her illustrious grandfather, John James Laforest Audubon.^ ' The 

 Life of Audubon the Naturalist, edited by Mr. Robert Buchanan from 



' Audubon and his | Journals | By | Maria R. Audubon | With Zoological 

 and other Notes | by | Elliott Coues | Volume I [-II] | New York | Charles 

 Scribner's Sons | 1897. — Two vols. 8vo, illustrated. Vol. I, pp. i-xiv, 1-532, 

 22 ill., mostly full-page photogravure; Vol. II, pp. i-viii, 1-554, 15 photo- 

 gravure ill. and 9 facsimiles of dijilomas. (Price, $7.50.) 



^Doubtless the name Laforest is little known as a part of Audubon's name 

 but in a footnote to p. 5 of the biograjjhy Miss Audubon gives the following 

 quotation from a letter of Audubon to Mrs. Rathbone, written in 1827, and 

 adds that all Mrs. Audubon's letters to her husband address him as Laforest : 

 " My name is John James Laforest Audubon. The name Laforest I never 

 sign except when writing to my wife, and she is the only being, since my 

 father's death, who calls me by it." 



