22 Skétch of North American Ornithology in 1879. (January, 
together with L. Belding’s extended list of Californian birds, 
edited by Mr. Ridgway. Vol. 11 opens with a paper by Dr. T. 
M. Brewer on Empidonax. 
The Bulletin of the U. S. Geological Survey gives us its fifth 
and, as we particularly regret to add, its final volume this year. 
It consists of the usual four numbers, of which the first and second 
and third have appeared, the fourth being still in press, delayed 
by printing E. Coues’s protracted and tedious bibliographical 
matter. In this volume are several papers on birds. Dr. C. E. 
McChesney, U. S. A., has some valuable notes on the Birds of 
Fort Sisseton, Dakota. Mr. George B. Sennett gives an exten- 
sive and important paper on the results of his second season’s 
operations in Texas, adding several new species to our fauna, 
with great store of information respecting the habits of the birds 
of the Rio Grande. Dr. Morris Gibbs gives an annotated list 
of the birds of Michigan. . Dr. Coues prints an article on the 
present status of Passer domesticus in America, including an his- 
torical résumé of the quarrel over the sparrow, which has set the 
brethren of Boston and Washington so by the ears. The same 
writer also offers a second instalment of his ornithological bibli- 
ography, similar in scope and plan to that which forms the 
appendix to his “ Birds of the Colorado Valley,” but relating to 
neotropical instead of nearctic birds. 
In the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, Dr. 
T. M. Brewer gives additional notes on the birds of New England, — 
and Mr. E. A. Mearns has published in the Buletin of the Essex 
Institute, several instalments of an elaborate and valuable list of 
- the birds of the Hudson Highlands, N: Y. 
The Transactions of the Illinois Horticultural Society, for 1878, 
published in 1879, contain a paper on economic ornithology, — 
by Prof. Forbes ; and we may add that previous volumes of the — 
same publication contain similar matter, perhaps none too well — 
known. It is an important practical subject ; such contributions 
to which as those of Prof. Forbes, of Prof. Aughey (in the First 
Annual Report of the U. S. Entomological Commission, 1878), of : 
Dr. J. M. Wheaton (Twenty-ninth Report Ohio Board of Agricul- 
ture, 1875), merit special attention pending the sparrow question. 
The Yournal of Science, edited at Toledo, Ohio, by Dr. E. H. — 
Fitch, continues to give popular articles on birds, mostly by the ; 
editor, and usually illustrated. 
The Familiar Science and Fanciers Fournal continues to fill its 
Pee eee a ECT Te ey Mem pte eS et NT are gee 
ORE Ee TT e eae SS 
