5 ° 
Recent Liter at tire. 
the pages of his work is enough to show that these opportunities have been 
sadly neglected. Important records are given without dates and often with 
only a vague or inferential assignment of locality, while improbable state- 
ments and palpable errors are of frequent occurrence. In short, it is only 
too evident thdt Mr. Krider’s “Notes” are the offspring of a fading memory 
rather than the carefully kept data of a systematic worker. Moreover, the 
author writes from a standpoint at least twenty-five years behind the times, 
and consequently ignores all the various developments affecting classifica- 
tion and the relationship of allied species and races. From all this chaff 
it is of course possible to separate some sound grain, but most of the 
really important records were published long ago by Turnbull, Cassin, and 
other writers. Of the literary execution of the present work we can say 
nothing favorable. It is to be regretted that the author could not have 
recognized his unfitness in this respect, and, as on a former occasion, 
have secured the services of a competent editor. — W. B. 
Langdon’s Zoological Miscellany.* — In the last issue of its well- 
known “Journal,” the Cincinnati Society of Natural History publishes the 
first of a series of articles entitled k 'Zoological Miscellany,” the aim and 
scope of which are thus tersely defined by the editor, Dr. FI W. Lang- 
don : — 
“ Under the above caption it is proposed to bring together from time to 
time such facts as may be deemed worthy of record, respecting the struc- 
ture, the life history, or the geographical distribution of the various spe- 
cies of animals constituting the Ohio Valley Fauna.” 
The part before us includes sections on mammalogy, ornithology, herpe- 
tology/ichthyology, conchology, and entojnology. In general terms, it may 
be said that all of these are well sustained, but in the present connection we 
have to do only with the one relating to birds. This contains a number of in- 
teresting notes, a large proportion of which are from the editor’s pen, al- 
though a few are signed by Mr. E. R. Quick, Mr. A. W. Butler, Dr. Howard 
E. Jones, and other more or less well-known names. Most of these notes 
relate chiefly to the local presence o'r distribution, of certain birds within 
the Ohio Valley, but one or two possess a wider interest. Among the lat- 
ter we notice an announcement by Dr. Langdon of the detection of the 
Oak-woods Sparrow . (, Peuccea cestivalis illinoensis , Ridgway) near Bards- 
town, Nelson County, Kentucky, “about one hundred miles southwest 
of Cincinnati.” The specimen was taken April 28, 1877, by Mr. C. W. 
Beckham, who referred it to Dr. Langdon for identification. 
In addition to his numerous notes, the editor contributes a short but 
useful paper on the “Introduction of European Birds.” From this it 
appears that “during the years 1872, ’73 and ’74, about nine thousand 
dollars were expended in the purchase and importation of European birds, 
their average cost to import being about four dollars and fifty cents a pair. 
* Zoological Miscellany, edited by Dr. F. W. Langdon. Jour. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. 
Hist., Vol. IV, Dec., 1881, pp. 336-346. 
