38 
Recent Literature. 
Ficus borealis, Vieillot, is the accepted designation of our Red- 
cockaded Woodpecker. Yet, so far from being a boreal bird, it is 
the most southern of all the Woodpeckers occurring east of the 
Mississippi River. The species has not, moreover, any southern 
representative, so that the designation is glaringly false “in all 
that the name implies,” and should give place to the very suitable 
one of querulus, imposed b} r Wilson only three years later. 
One of the most characteristic birds of Florida — the Limpkin or 
Crying-Bird — was named, in 1828, Rallies giganteus by Bona- 
parte. If really a Rail, the name giganteus would be truly appro- 
priate. But since it is not a Rail, and especially since the only 
other known species of the genus is decidedly larger, the term gi- 
ganteus is, to say the least, objectionable. 
Other examples among North American birds might be cited, but 
the above are sufficient for the present purpose. 
Accent ^Literature, 
Ingersoll’s Nests and Eggs of American Birds.* — While it 
gives us pleasure to record the progress of this meritorious work, we regret 
to perceive that the parts continue to appear without dating, or any indi- 
cation whatever of the time of their publication ; and that textual refer- 
ences to the figures of the plates are still insufficiently explicit. These are 
grave defects in a work aspiring to a permanent place in the literature of 
American Ornithology — in one which will undoubtedly secure such place 
through the zeal and ability with which the text is prepared ; and we still 
hope that the publisher will find it neither beneath his dignity nor incom- 
patible with his interests to comply with the requirements of a case so 
obvious as this. 
Otherwise we have, as on a previous occasion, nothing to say except in 
praise of the plan and purpose of this work, and of the fidelity with which 
the author continues his labors. Mr. Ingersoll has his subject well in 
hand now ; he confines himself strictly to the announced scope of the 
* Nests and Eggs of American Birds. By Ernest Ingersoll. S. E. Cassino, 
Naturalist’s Agency, Salem, Mass. 8vo. Part II, pp. 25-48, Pll. iai, iv, 
pub. Aug., 1879. Part III, pp. 49-72, Pll. v, vi, pub. Oct., 1879. 
