REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 361 
RECENT CONTRIBUTIONS TO AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL ORNITHOL- 
ocy.— We have before us several recent papers relating to the 
avian faunz of a number of quite widely separated localities. To 
Messrs. Holden and Aiken we are indebted for ‘ Notes on the 
Birds of Wyoming and Colorado Territories.”* These notes were 
sent to Dr. T. M. Brewer for his private use, and by him commu- 
nicated to the Boston Society of Natural History. Fromm his in- 
troductory note we learn that Mr. Holden’s observations were 
made ‘‘in summer,” and Mr. Aiken’s “ between November 1, 
1871,and May, 1872. The exact locality, however, is left in doubt, 
but we are led to infer from Mr. Holden’s remarks which follow, 
that this gentleman’s observations were made chiefly about Sher- 
man “in the immediate vicinity of the Black Hills,” near the boun- 
dary of Wyoming and Colorado Territories. Mr. Aiken’s notes, 
as partially appears from his memoranda (and as I have learned 
from private sources), were made in El Paso County, Colorado 
(most of them near Fountain), some two hundred miles south 
of Sherman and about two thousand feet less in elevation. The 
two localities thus differ greatly in climatological and other gen- 
eral features affecting the distribution of species. The whole 
humber of species given in the list is one hundred and ‘forty, of 
which but twenty-seven are common to the two localities. Only 
fifteen are mentioned by Mr. Holden that are not noted by Mr. 
Aiken, while the latter reports ninety-eight that are not given by 
the former. The whole number mentioned as occurring in the 
Vicinity of Sherinan is hence forty-two, while one hundred and 
fourteen were observed near Fountain. The primary value of faunal 
lists Consists, of course, in the indications they give as to the avian 
peculiarities of limited districts. It would hence have been far 
better, doubtless, not to have combined in a single list the notes 
made at such distant localities, and under such diverse topographi- 
cal and clinatic conditions. These observations, however, as thus 
Siven, are extremely interesting and very valuable, having evi- 
tly been carefully made. They are, moreover, from localities 
hitherto scarcely explored; the very imperfect recently published 
list of the birds of Cheyenne (some forty miles east of Sherman, 
on the Plains, and nearly two thousand feet lower) and the partial 
Si eae en ES 
* Notes on the Birds of Wyoming and Colorado Territories. By c. H. Holden, Jr.; 
With Additional Memoranda, by C. E. Aiken. Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. XX, pp. 
193-210; Dev. i372, (Read June 5, 1872.) 
