1 56 Recent Literature. [July 



A brief jet adequate characterization of the catalogue as a whole, is 

 difficult. It is too good a paper to be wholly condemned, too faulty a one 

 to be generously praised. As an authority it should not be blindly fol- 

 lowed: — there are too many obvious flaws to warrant implicit trust in the 

 general structure. But as a contribution to our knowledge of the habits 

 and distribution of Maine birds it forms an original and very acceptable 

 paper. Its author — as known through the medium of his work — is appar- 

 ently an ardent sportsman in whom an extensive field experience has awak- 

 ened such a love for birds that he has become almost an ornithologist. 

 Such an observer may write intelligently and usefully of the birds which 

 have been the special objects of his study or pursuit, but he should not 

 confidently presume to cover the more general field. The present paper 

 would have been a more creditable one had these limitations been recog- 

 nized and acted upon. — W. B. 



Nests and Eggs of the Birds of Ohio.— Part XVI of the great 

 work reaches us in due course, dated April, 1S83, with pp. 155-166, pll. 

 xlvi-xlviii. Plate xlvi, the nest of the Long-billed Marsh Wren and 

 three eggs makes, as might be expected, a striking subject for illustration. 

 PI. xlvii, without nests, gives the eggs (three apiece) of the Black Tern 

 (fig. i), Kingfisher (fig. 2), Florida Gallinule (fig. 3), and Coot (fig. 4). 

 Plate xlviii portrays in fig. i the nest and three eggs of the White-eyed 

 Vireo, and in fig. 2 the nest of the Bay-winged Bunting, containing four 

 eggs, with three others to one side on the paper. This nest seems to be 

 wholly jipon the ground, though we believe the rule is that the nest of 

 this species is sunken flush with the level of the ground.— E. C. 



Contributions to the Anatomy of Birds.* — Under this title a 

 meritorious and very promising ornithotomist has brought together the 

 greater part of what he has thus far accomplished in the way of avian anat- 

 omy. This "author's edition," which appears in advance of the Report 

 of which it occupies over 200 pages, though fortunately without repagina- 

 tion, and with consecutive numeration of the 24 plates, consists of five 

 separate and distinct osteological memoirs. These are : (i) o{ Sfeotyto 

 ctmicularia hypogcea; (2) of Eremophila alpestris; (3) of the Tetrao- 

 nidce; (4) oi Latit'us ludovictanus excubitorides; and (5) of the Cathar- 

 tidce. Only the last of these is new. Our readers will remember that 

 we formerly! presented them with the plates of the Sfeotyto memoir; 

 and notices^: of the Eremophila, the TetraonidcE and the Lanius memoirs 

 have already been given in the present periodical. It would scarcely be 



* Contributions to the Anatomy of Birds. By R. W. Shufeldt, M. D. [etc.] Author's 

 edition, extracted (in advance) from the Twelfth Annual Report of the late U. S. Geo- 

 logical and Geographical Survey of the Territories (Hayden's). Washington, Govern- 

 ment Prindng Office, October 14, 1882. 8vo, title and pp. 593-806, pll. i-xxiv, many ' 

 woodcc. in text. 



tThis Bulletin, Vol. V, pp, 129, 130, pll. i-iii. 



t Ibid., Vol. VI, pp. 109, no, and Vol. VII, pp. 44, 45. 



