Recent Literature. 
139 
has been seen in North Adams, in August, with young so immature tha 
they must have been of local origin ; Myiodioctes canadensis breeds every 
summer in Essex County, the writer having two sets of their eggs taken 
in Lynn, and of course the omission of the * from Colaptes auratus was an 
accident. Without wishing in the least to criticise this list of one hundred 
and thirty-five species, would it not be well, if any of these instances given 
are inferred, rather than known, to designate all such by a distinguishing 
mark ? And where it is positively known that such species as Turdus 
pallasi, Mimus polyglottus , Gertliia familiaris , Dendrceca ccerulescens, etc. 
have bred within the State, to mention when and where, as is done in the 
case of Junco hyemalis ? The list of Massachusetts species supposed to be 
extirpated is one of almost painful interest, and one we fear to be ere-long 
materially increased. Specimens of the Wild Turkey have been taken 
in Franklin County as late as 1842, but railroads have since completed 
their extinction. 
The third list, of probable occurrences, is also a very interesting one, 
but in regard to several species rests so entirely on mere speculation as 
to be suggestive of a conflict of opinions as to the ground of this proba- 
bility. What, for instance, can be suggested as circumstances likely to 
bring Saxicola cenanthe to Massachusetts ? It is of rare occurrence in 
Labrador, and there only breeds in the extreme northeastern corner. Its 
migrations are either by way of the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland, or 
directly across the ocean to South Greenland.* Guiraca ccerulea and Pro- 
tonotaria citrea are supposed to approach Eastern Maine from the northwest 
by a circuitous route, entirely avoiding Southern New England, which, if 
correctly inferred, does not favor either ever visiting us, though after what 
has happened it ill becomes one to even seem to prophesy as to what may 
not occur ! Yet the occurrence of JEgialitis wilsonia in Massachusetts is 
another, in the writer’s opinion, not to be anticipated. 
Three names are given in a list of very doubtful species. One of these, 
the Small-headed Flycatcher, whatever it may have been, was probably 
not a Myiodioctes. Dr. Pickering’s recollections of the individual captured 
by him in Wenham, and identified by Nuttall, were suggestive of a very 
small true Flycatcher, and so long as grave doubt exists as to this form, 
and no type has been preserved, its claim to a full acceptance is inadmissible. 
Six birds are classed as introduced species, and ninety others are named 
as extremely rare or occasional visitors. This number, it is possible, will 
be largely increased through the larger numbers of observers on the look- 
out for them, and will always contain an indefinite number of names the 
conditions of whose presence must ever remain an unexplained enigma . 
In the spring of 1877 a fine fresh specimen of Cyanospiza ciris flew into 
[* Its capture near Quebec, Canada, and on Long Island, N. Y., and its 
somewhat frequent occurrence in the Bermudas, might be considered in this 
connection. (See Baird’s Review of American Birds, 1864, p. 61.) — J. A. A.] 
