AVES. 
79 
Ambrose, J ohiI. Observations on the Sea-Birds frequenting St* 
Margaret^s Bay, N.S. Proc. Nov. Scot. Inst. Nat. Sc. ii. 
pp. 51-59. 
Twenty-nine species are mentioned by their local names, and . 
some of them are scientifically identified, but the list is admitted 
by the author to be incomplete. A very great and unnecessary 
destruction of birds appears to go on in this district. 
Baird, S. F. Beview of American Birds in the Museum of 
the Smithsonian Institution. Part I. (continued). North 
and Middle America. Washington: 1865. Royal 8vo, pp. 
177-320. 
The scope of this work was explained in the last volume of 
the 'Record^ (p. 55). The continuation published during the 
past year completes the family Mniotiltid(S, including descriptions 
of thirteen or fifteen species which are new or renamed j and 
three new subgenera, Myioborus, Idiotes, and ErgaticuSy are 
characterized. This portion of the work concludes with the 
family HirundmidcBy of which six or seven new species are de- 
scribed. Phceoprogne, Pygocliclidon, Notiochelidoriy and Calliche- 
lidon are new subgenera formed. The author characterizes 
every species and group included in his work with a degree of 
minuteness which is almost excessive ; but the abundance of 
materials at his disposal probably renders this necessary, while 
the perspicuity of his descriptions does much to remove any evil 
that might in consequence arise, though this does not make the 
task of the present compiler the easier, it being impossible for 
him generally to condense the numerous peculiarities, which in 
some instances appear t6 belong rather to the individual, 
sufficiently to reproduce them in the special part of the 
^ Record.^ 
CouES, E. Ornithology of a Prairie- Journey, and Notes on the 
Birds of Arizona. Ibis, 1865, pp. 157-165. 
The route taken by the author was through Fort Leavenworth 
and Santa Fe to Fort Whipple, in the spring of 1864. At St. 
Louis he had the first indication of entering upon an avifauna 
different from that of the east, and near Fort Riley he found 
still greater changes, though its type was still essentially eastern; 
but directly westward of this place the true prairie-species are 
met with. Calamospiza bicolor is the characteristic bird of the 
district, but stops abruptly at the first mountains. Xanthoce- 
plialus icterocephalus j Eremophila cornutay and Sturnella neglecta 
continue through New Mexico into Arizona. Carpodacus fron- 
talis is the common town-bird of New Mexico. Several eastern 
forms are common on the Rio Grande. The avifauna of Arizona 
inclines decidedly towards that of corresponding regions in Cali- 
fornia, as is shown by the list of birds with which Dr, Couea 
