Recent Literature. 
[July 
1 66 
A brief jet adequate- characterization of the catalogue as a whole, is 
difficult. It is too good a paper to be wholly condemned, too faulty a one 
to be generously praised. As an authority it should not be blindly fol- 
lowed : — there are too many obvious flaws to warrant implicit trust in the 
general structure. But as a contribution to our knowledge of the habits 
and distribution of Maine birds it forms an original and very acceptable 
paper. Its author — as known through the medium of his work — is appar- 
ently an ardent sportsman in whom an extensive field experience has awak- 
ened such a love for birds that he has become almost an ornithologist. 
Such an observer may write intelligently and usefully of the birds which 
have been the special objects of his study or pursuit, but he should not' 
confidently presume to cover the more general field. The present paper 
would have been a more creditable one had these limitations been recog- 
nized and acted upon. — W. B. 
Nests and Eggs of the Birds of Ohio. — Part XVI of the great 
work reaches us in due course, dated April, 1883, with pp. 155-166, pll. 
xlvi-xlviii. Plate xlvi, the nest of the Long-billed Marsh Wren and 
three eggs makes, as might be expected, a striking subject for illustration. 
PI. xlvii, without nests, gives the eggs (three apiece) of the Black Tern 
(fig. 1), Kingfisher (fig. 2), Florida Gallinule (fig. 3), and Coot (fig. 4). 
Plate xlviii portrays in fig. 1 the nest and three eggs of the White-eyed 
Vireo, and in fig. 2 the nest of the Bay-winged Bunting, containing four 
eggs, with three others to one side on the paper. This nest seems to be 
wholly upon the ground, though we believe the rule is that the nest of 
this species is sunken flush with the level of the ground. — E. C. 
Contributions to the Anatomy of Birds.* — Under this title a 
meritorious and very promising ornithotomist has brought together the 
greater part of what he has thus far accomplished in the way of avian anat- 
omy. This “author’s edition,” which appears in advance of the Report 
of which it occupies over 200 pages, though fortunately without repagina- 
tion, and with consecutive numeration of the 24 plates, consists of five 
separate and distinct osteological memoirs. These are : (1) of Speotyto 
cunt cut a ria hyp ogee a; (2) of Eremophila alpestns; (3) of the Tetfao- 
nidee ; (4) of Lanius ludovicianus excubitorides ; and (5) of the Cat/iar- 
tidee. Only the last of these is new. Our readers will remember that 
we formerly f presented them with the plates of the Speotyto memoir; 
and notices J of the Eremophila , the Tetraonidce and the Lanius memoirs 
have already been given in the present periodical. It would scarcely be 
* Contributions to the Anatomy of Birds. By R. W. Shufeldt, M. D. [etc.] Author’s 
edition, extracted (in advance) from the Twelfth Annual Report of the late U. S. Geo- 
logical and Geographical Survey of the Territories (Hayden’s). Washington, Govern- 
ment Printing Office, October 14, 1882. 8vo, title and pp. 593-806, pll. i-xxiv, many 
woodcc. in text. 
f This Bulletin, Vol. V, pp, 129, 130, pll. i-iii. 
t Ibid., Vol. VI, pp. 109, no, and Vol. VII, pp. 44, 45. 
