^"ss^n Recent Literature. ^ 2"]^ 



cold, the pale color anci small size ot the hirds, Ijotii of which were closely 

 observed for fully twenty minutes, making identification practically cer- 

 tain. Snow is nearly always on the ground at this time of the year, and 

 the birds search for hillocks of bare earth. The nests are beautifully 

 cupped and carefully built of roots of grass. — C K. Clarke, M. D., 

 Kingston, Ontario. 



An Addition and a Correction to the List of North Carolina Birds. — 

 Bay-breasted Warbler {Dendroica castanea). — A female D. castanea 

 was taken by myself at Chapel Hill, Oct. 2, 1897, and a male was secured 

 on the Sth of the same month. Both specimens were in the immature 

 plumage. They were identified by Prof. Robert Ridgway. I believe this 

 to be the first record of this bird in North Carolina. 



Clav-colored Sparrow (Spizella pallida). — In part second of the 

 'Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society,' for 1887, published at 

 Chapel Hill, Prof. Geo. F.Atkinson gives a ' Preliminary Catalogue of the 

 Birds of North Carolina.' Under the name of 6". pallida he says : " Acci- 

 dental. One taken at Chapel Hill, March 8th, 1886 (Univ. Coll.) " The 

 specimen to which he refers is No. 1050 in the University collection. 



In two or more publications since, references have been made to this as 

 the one record of this Sparrow's occurrence in the State. Upon examin- 

 ing the specimen I became convinced that an error had been committed in 

 the identification, and at once sent it to the Smithsonian Institution. 

 Prof. Richmond identified it as being %\vci^\y Melos^piza georgiana. — T. 

 Gilbert Pearson, Chapel Hill, N. C. 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Two New Popular Bird Books. — Two more popular bird books have 

 just been added to the -long series of hand-books for beginners. Though 

 both are prepared with the same object in view, they differ radically from 

 each other in style of treatment of the subject, and also are quite unlike 

 any of their predecessors. One is the work of an enthusiastic ornitholo- 

 gist of wide experience with birds in life, the other by a schoolmaster and 

 an amateur, who has his subject Avell in hand, and who knows from prac- 

 tical experience the needs of beginners in attempting nature studies. 

 With points of view and previous experience so unlike, it is not surprising 

 that the method of treating the subject here in hand — the birds of eastern 

 North America — should also widely differ. 



