138 
Recent Literature. 
author draws the line between the Pacific and Middle Provinces at about 
the eastern foot of the Sierras, deducing this conclusion mainly from the 
examination of material collected in the neighborhood of Carson and 
among the eastern foothills of the Sierras. The full results of the 
season’s work are given in two detailed lists, entitled, respectively, “ List 
of Birds observed near Carson City, Nevada, from August 25 to Septem- 
ber 16, and from November 10 to November 20, 1876, with Notes,” and 
“ List of Birds observed on the Eastern Slope of the Sierras, near Carson 
City, Nevada, from September 16 to November 7, with Notes.” The an- 
notations in both of these lists are in most cases very brief, but some of 
them possess considerable interest and value. The announcement of the 
occurrence of Dendrocygna fulva in large flocks at Washoe Lake early 
in the year 1877 is especially worthy of attention. Their appearance in 
such large numbers is considered by Mr. Henshaw as exceptional, but he 
regards it as “by no means unlikely that future investigations will show 
the bird to be a regular summer resident of such portions of this region as 
are suited to its needs.” Among the species occurring upon the eastern 
slope of the Sierras, Turdus ncevius is here given for the first time, but 
unfortunately upon somewhat questionable grounds. The genus Pas- 
serella is again overhauled, and in the light of more recent investigations 
a somewhat different and apparently more substantial arrangement decided 
upon. The three Western forms, schistacea, townsendi , and megarhyncha, 
stand as varieties of iliaca , — a disposition which, v r e believe, represents 
Mr. Henshaw’s present views upon the subject. — W. B. 
Allen’s Birds of Massachusetts.* — It is seldom that one meets 
with a local catalogue more thoroughly satisfactory in all essential respects 
than the present one. Careful, conservative, almost to a fault, and as 
nearly exhaustive as may be possible, in regard to data, authorities, and 
evidence, in the cases of rare or irregular visitors, it is a model as to what 
a local list should be. Of course it is not yet quite perfect, for that feature 
was not to be looked for, but it is sufficiently so for all ordinary purposes. 
The data that have escaped the author’s keen researches are few indeed 
and generally not important, wdiile very many are now published for the 
first time. 
The first portion of this list presents the names of three hundred and 
sixteen species of ascertained occurrence in Massachusetts, not one of 
which can be challenged. This number might even be increased if several 
forms were recognized as having what the present writer considers their 
legitimate specific value. About one hundred and thirty-five are marked 
as breeding within the State, and this number might also be somewhat 
extended, to the writer’s positive knowledge. Deyidrceca striata , for instance, 
* A List of the Birds of Massachusetts, with Annotations, by J. A. Allen. 
Bulletin of the Essex Institute, Vol. X, pp. 3-37, April, 1878. 
