Recent Literature. 
175 
cerned, on Dr. Jordan’s “Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern 
United States,” and Dr. Coues’s “ Key to North American Birds.” There 
are also “apt quotations ” from the last-named author’s “ Birds of the Colo- 
rado Valley ” and “ Birds of the Northwest,” from Thoreau, Burroughs, and 
Emerson, selected with a view to awakening interest among horticulturists 
in the general subject, aud in the practical relation of birds to agriculture. 
While well adapted to the object in view, we note little in Dr. Brayton’s 
paper that is new to ornithologists, but much that is given from good 
authorities. Short notes are added relative to the abundance, habits, and 
season of occurrence of the 306 species enumerated, followed by special 
lists of those which breed in Northwestern Indiana, of those which merely 
pass through the State during their migrations, of the winter visitants and 
residents, etc. The paper closes with an index to the names of the genera 
and higher groups, with their derivations, a “ glossary ” of the specific 
names, and an index of English names. In short, Dr. Brayton’s paper can- 
not well fail of greatly promoting the objects for which it was prepared. 
— J. A. A. 
Mearns’s Birds of the Hudson Highlands. — The first part of Mr. 
Mearns’s important contribution to the ornithology of Southern New York * 
appeared early in 1879, and three later instalments carry the list through 
the genus Loxia, some forty pages being devoted to the 71 species thus far 
treated. The rarer species are frequently noticed at considerable length, 
and often to common ones much space is allotted. While the writer draws 
mainly from his own experience, he occasionally indulges in quotations 
from other authors, his notices of some of the species amounting to nearly 
complete biographies. His own notes, even when relating to some of our 
best known birds, are replete with new information attractively presented, 
few lists having appeared which offer so much that is really a contribu- 
tion to the subject in a field where so little really new is to be looked for. 
Two important features of the paper are the dates of arrival and departure, 
which generally cover a period of four to six years, and the measure- 
ments, which are commonly averages based on series numbering from about 
fifteen to upward of sixty specimens of each species. The future instal- 
ments of Mr. Mearns’s highly praiseworthy memoir may well be antici- 
pated with interest. — J. A. A. 
Harvie-Brown and Cordeaux’s Report on the Migration 
of BiRDS.f — Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Cordeaux, two well-known 
* A List of the Birds of the Hudson Highlands, with Annotations. By 
Edgar A. Mearns. Bull. Essex Institute, Vol. X, pp. 166 - 179 (Introduction 
and Turdus migratorius to Parus atricapillus, inclusive), May, 1879 ; Vol. XI, 
pp. 43-52 ( Sitta carolinensis to Dcndroeca ccerulescens), June, 1879 ; pp. 154- 
168 (Dendrceca ccerulea to Myiodioctes mitrata), Oct., 1879 ; pp. 189-204 (M. 
canadensis to Loxia curvirostra), April, 1880. 
+ Report on the Migration of Birds in .the Autumn of 1879. By John A. 
Harvie-Brown and John Cordeaux. Zoologist, May, 1880, pp. 161-204. Also 
eparate, pp. 44. 
