54, 



Recent Literature. [Jamiaiy 



Mr. Dutcher's paper is short, occupying less than three pages. The 

 author argues that the Fish Crow is ^^s. perma?ie?it ivinter resident in its 

 northern habitat [/. e. the Lower Valley of the Hudson River, Long 

 Island, the coast line of Connecticut, etc.), instead' of a rare summer 

 visitor' as has been generally supposed. The evidence cited is apparently 

 conclusive, but its bearing would be more fairly stated if the word 

 '•'-winter'" had been omitted from the sentence quoted above. 



In general appearance the present volume offers little that can be criti- 

 cized. The paper is good and the typographical execution nearly faultless. 

 We do not like the use of capitals for proper specific names in the scientific 

 titles, but that is a point on which naturalists are not agreed, the botanists 

 refusing to accept the uniform rule followed by most zoologists. The 

 seemingly capricious use of capitals for the English names, especially 

 noticeable in Dr. Merriam's paper, is less defensible, and we are at a loss 

 to understand the total absence of an index, the volume otherwise being 

 apparently complete. 



But these are trifling matters and, as a whole. Volume I of the "Tran- 

 sactions of the Linnsean Society" is a credit to its originators and publish- 

 ers. Mav the series which is to follow be a veiy long one. — W. B. 



Saunders's Notes on some Larid^ from Peru and Chili. *^ — The 

 present paper treats of a collection of Laridce made on the coasts of Peru 

 and Chili by Capt. A. H. Markham of H. M. S. "Triumph." Fifteen 

 species are represented; among these is a specimen (the third one known) 

 of Xeina furcatum, the large southern congener of the circumpolar ^. 

 sabinii. The text is accompanied by a beautiful colored plate, illustrating 

 the adult and young plumages of this "rarest of Gulls, and one of the 

 rarest of all known birds," now rediscovered after an interval of forty years' 

 fruitless search. 



Mr. Saunders is one of the few scientific writers who possess the 

 happy faculty of making' a technical treatise interesting to the average 

 reader. The present paper is not inferior to his previous ones in this 

 respect; moreover it has a direct value to the student of North 

 American ornithology, for much of its subject-matter — especially the 

 concluding remarks on the coloration, changes of plumage, distribution, 

 and probable ancestral origin of the Gulls of the Pacific Ocean — relates 

 to species which are included in the North American Fauna. — -W. B. 



Hoffman's List of Birds observed at Fort Berthold, D. T.f — 

 In a paper of about nine pages Dr. Hoft'man gives the result of some 



*On some Laridas from the coasts of Peru and Chili, collected by Capt. Albert H. 

 Markham, R. N., with Remarks on the Geographical Distribution of the Group in the 

 Pacific. By Howard Saunders, F. L. S., F. Z. S. Proc. Zool. Soc. of London, June 6, 

 1882, pp. 520-530; with colored plate of Xema furcatum adult and young. 



tList of Birds observed at Ft. Berthold, D. T., during the month of September, 1881. 

 By W. J. Hoffman, M. D. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Feb. i, 1882. 



