REVIEWS. 
291 
American Mesozoic and Csenozoic Unionidae and associated mollusca 'with 
living species, and discusses the palaeontology of the same formations in the 
Green River region. 
The zoological papers are not numerous, hut what there are are of consider- 
able interest. Dr/ElliottCoues contributes somenotes on the North American 
forms of insectivorous mammals, which appear to be preliminary to a complete 
monograph of the group, the North American species of which, although not 
numerous and belonging to only two families, have already been the subjects 
of considerable diversity of opinion. Mr. C. A. H. McCauley’s notes on the 
ornithology of the region about the source of the Red River of Texas, which 
are annotated by Dr. Elliott Coues, are also an important contribution. 
Besides furnishing a list of the bird-inhabitants of an out-of-the-way locality, 
they give a good deal of information upon the habits of the species observed. 
A catalogue of the land and freshwater shells of Nebraska by Dr. Aughey, 
a formidable list for a single State, and a report by Mr. A. D. Wilson on 
the geographical work of the Survey, conclude the 3rd number of this 
Bulletin for 1877. 
Another publication under the auspices of the Survey of the Territories is 
the Bulletin of the Entomological Commission,* two parts of which have 
reached us. Both these pamphlets are devoted to the consideration of that 
terrible scourge of the western farmer, the Rocky-Mountain locust ( Colop - 
tenus spretus') whose ravages appear to be extending further and further 
east with each succeeding year. The second part contains an admirable 
account of the natural history of this pest, illustrated with a map showing 
the extent of country infested by it ; the first part deals solely with the 
methods to be adopted for destroying the young, or, as cur American cousins 
with their usual fondness for idiomatic expressions prefer to call them, 
u unfledged ” locusts. The Entomological Commission consists of MM. 
Riley, Packard, and C. Thomas. 
Other Government publications that we have received, are Professor 
Newcomb’s “ Investigation of Corrections to Hansen’s Tables of the Moon,” 
forming Part 3 of papers published by the U. S. Transit of Venus Commission,, 
an investigation undertaken for the purpose of enabling the longitudes of 
the observation-stations to be accurately determined ; and the volume of 
Astronomical and Meteorological Observations for 1874, t published in the 
present year. The last-named volume carries its own description with it 7 
but we may notice that besides the ordinary tables of the results of obser- 
vations, it contains an appendix giving a most interesting description of the 
astronomical instruments in the Observatory (one of them being a magnificent 
26-inch equatorial), illustrated with heliotvpe representations of the different 
instruments, and also a second appendix on the difference of longitude 
between Washington and Ogden, Utah. 
The Seventh Annual Report of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, J 
* Bulletin of the United States Entomological Commission. Parts 1 & 2. 
8vo. Washington. 1877. 
t u Astronomical and Meteorological Observations made during the 
year 1874 at the United States Naval Observatory.” Rear-Admiral C. H. 
Davis, Superintendent. 4to. Washington. 1877. 
X “ Seventh Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Massa- 
chusetts. January, 1876.” 8vo. Boston. 1876. 
