4 8 
Recent Literature . 
Freke on the Birds of Amelia County, Virginia.* — Our knowl- 
edge of the birds of Eastern Virginia is so largely inferential that Mr. 
Freke has done good service in publishing the results of six years’ obser- 
vations in Amelia County, at a point “about thirty miles south of Rich- 
mond.” His list, which is freely annotated, includes 1 12 species. The 
Barn Swallow is catalogued as a spring and fall migrant; the Tree Sparrow 
{Sftizella montana ), as a rather uncommon winter visitor; the Field 
Sparrow, as resident but most common in winter; the Chipping Sparrow 
as arriving from the south late in March and as leaving during November ; 
the Song Sparrow as wintering but not breeding; the Blue Grosbeak as 
not uncommon during the latter part of April and early in May, but, 
rather unaccountably, as not being found in summer; the Ruffed Grouse 
as plentiful in the mountains but not common in the low country, although 
a few regularly nest there in thick pine woods. 
The author has evidently fallen into some confusion regarding the 
spotted-breasted Thrushes of the genus Turdus. Thus T. “ fiallasi” is 
characterized as a “ resident species, apparently not migrating even in 
the most partial manner.” In view of our very definite knowledge of the 
Hermit’s distribution, such a statement by itself would be open to the 
gravest suspicion, but when we add that Mr. Freke does not mention the 
Wilson’s, Olive-backed, or Wood Thrushes as occurring at any season , it 
is quite plain that the Hermit ( verus ) did duty as the winter bird, the 
Olive-backed or Wilson’s Thrush filled the gap during the migrations, 
and the Wood Thrush was the species that “ builds its clay-lined nest in 
the fork of some cedar or dogwood bush, at the height of eight or ten 
feet from the ground, and there lays its blue eggs.” The statement that 
Dendroeca coronata “is one of the commonest warblers in the district, 
and spends [a] great part of the year there,” is not so easily explained ; 
but despite the still more explicit assurance that “ they come about the 
end of April, or the beginning of May, and remain until very late in the 
autumn,” we cannot help thinking that some mistake was made in the 
identification of the individuals seen in summer. 
Save in the last named instances, however, there is no reason to doubt 
that the author’s commendable practise of “ verifying my observations, 
as far as possible, by securing specimens and preserving skins ” was con- 
scientiously carried out, and his paper will be read with interest, not only 
as an exponent of the ornithology of a previously unworked section, but 
also as embodying a foreigner’s pleasantly told impressions of many of 
our familiar birds. — W. B. 
Langdon’s Field Notes on Louisiana Birds. f — These notes com- 
prise “ a record of ornithological observations and collections made by 
* On birds observed in Amelia County, Virginia- By Percy E. Freke. Scientific 
Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society, Vol, III, Part III. [Read Feb. 21st, 1881.] 
f Field Notes on Louisiana Birds. By Dr. F. W. Langdon. Journ. Cincinnati Soc* 
Nat. Hist., July, 1881, pp. 145-155. 
