Recent Literature. 
T 73 
Rose-breasted Grosbeak ( Goniaphea ludoviciana). The colored plate 
illustrates the adult male and female, but the sixteen quarto pages (pp. 
25-40) of text leave the history of the species still unfinished. In noticing 
Part I (this Bulletin, Vol. V. p. 234) we were compelled to speak unfavor- 
ably of the literary execution of the work, and regret that the present 
issue will not permit of more favorable notice. A single sentence, a por- 
tion of which we may italicize, may serve to point our criticism: “The 
tender blades of golden hued grasses were gently crowding aside the 
dead leaves of the preceding autumn, like true lollards of a murmuring 
hour .” (p. 26). As nearly or quite three-fourths of the text consists of 
quotations from other authors, bearing mainly upon the utility of the 
Rose-breasted Grosbeak as a destroyer of the Colorado potato beetle, but 
including also a long extract from Audubon, the not too fastidious reader 
may find little to offend his taste.- — J. A. A. 
IIolterhoff’s Notes on Western Birds. — These notes, as the title 
of the paper* indicates, relate to the breeding babits of a few of the lesser 
known species of Western birds. The observations here recorded were 
made in Southern California in the spring of 1880, and have reference to 
some 40 species, among which are included the Curve-billed Thrushes 
and the Polioptilce of the region in question, about which, as well as of 
various other species, much interesting information is communicated. — 
J. A. A. 
Ridgway on a Duck new to the North American Fauna. — In 
the “ Proceedings ” of the United States National Museumf, Mr. Ridgway 
records an immature male Rufous-crested Duck ( Fuligula rufina , Steph.) 
supposed to have been shot on Long Island Sound. The specimen was 
found in Fulton Market, New York City, some nine years ago by Mr. 
George A. Boardman, of Calais, Maine, by whom it was then sent to the 
Smithsonian Institution. The specimen was then looked upon as a hybrid, 
and was put aside and forgotten. It received no further attention until 
recently when it was identified by Mr Ridgway as above stated. In 
making the record Mr. Ridgway takes occasion to describe the species in 
its various phases of plumage, and adds a few critical remarks on the 
generic synonymy of the group to which it belongs. — J. A. A. 
Ridgway on the Amazilia yucatanensis (Cabot) J.— This species 
was not long since referred by Elliot to the A. cerviniventris of Gould, 
which determination was later accepted by Mr. Ridgway. A comparison 
* A Collector’s Notes on the Breeding of a few Western Birds. By E. [i. e., G.] 
Holterhoff, Jr. American Naturalist, March, 1881, pp. 208-219. 
f On a Duck new to the North American Fauna. By Robert Ridgway. Proe. U. S. 
Nat. Mus., April 13, 1881, pp. 22-24. 
X On Amazila yucatanensis (Cabot) and A. cerviniventris, Gould. By Robert 
Ridgway. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., April 13, 1881, pp. 25, 26, 
