140 
Recent Literature. 
an open window in Boylston Street, Boston, and there remains a caged 
bird. But had it been one before ? Probably yes, but possibly no. It 
had not the appearance or action of one. Yet so probable was it that it 
had escaped from confinement that it was not thought worthy of a record. 
The great merits of Mr. Allen’s lists are that they furnish a succinct yet 
thorough history of all claims, of whatever nature, to be recognized as 
Massachusetts birds. Its five divisions well present the character of these 
claims, and show why certain names should not be received. The com- 
pleteness of the references and data, and the numerous additions, giving 
new announcements or unrecorded captures, is also quite remarkable. 
As a matter of course, here and there one or two interesting captures may 
have escaped his notice, e. g. Syrnium cinereum, Lynn, 1872 (History 
of North American Birds, III, p. 32), while others of which there is no 
record, and which he could not know, as the capture at Swampscott, Au- 
gust 27, 1876, of Tringa bairdi , male, by Mr. Wm. A. Jeffries, and that 
of a Short-tailed Tern (Hydroclielidon niger, Saunders) at Nantucket, August 
8, 1877, by Mr. Geo. H. Mackay, both specimens being in the possession 
of their captors. That these exceptions are so very few attest at once the 
diligence of the author and the completeness of his list. Thirty-five North 
American birds have been added to the Massachusetts list since 1867. 
— T. M. B. 
Mr. H. Saunders on the Sternhsle.* — Having had opportunities of 
examining interesting types of various real or supposed species of Sternince, 
the author has anticipated in a measure the monograph of the Laridce 
upon wdiich he has long been engaged, by giving the gist of his observations 
in the present revision of the subfamily Sternince, which may be regarded as 
the continuation of papers already published in the same periodical on the 
Larince and Lestridince. AVe have here in condensed and convenient shape 
the main results of a protracted study, representing much laborious and 
faithful application ; the author has evidently worked with care, and fully 
availed himself of the unusual facilities he has enjoyed. His examination 
of the types of various obscure species has enabled him to clear up a good 
many points hitherto doubtful, and make an exhibit which bears its rec- 
ommendation on its face. I regard the paper as the most authoritative one 
we possess on this subject, being prepared, under exceptionally favorable 
circumstances, by a skilful ornithologist w T ho has made the present family 
a particular study. 
The author, as it seems to me judiciously, greatly reduces the number 
of genera which have been wildly proposed for birds of this subfamily _ 
Though I formerly admitted a somewhat larger number, in view of my 
studies of our representatives of the group, than he now recognizes, I freely 
* On the Sterninse, or Terns, with Descriptions of three new Species. By 
Howard Saunders, F.L.S., F.Z.S. Proc. Zool. Soc., 1876, pp. 638-672, PI. LXI. 
