144 
Recent Literature. 
he has here worked up the synonymy of the species, and that he will spare 
no printer’s ink which may be wanted for the full exposition and discus- 
sion of synonymatic matters, giving us his processes as well as his results ; 
so that, being once done, the matter may be done for once and all. The 
present writer’s interest in the subject yields only to the cordiality of his 
wishes for the most successful accomplishment of the author’s work. — 
Elliott Coues. 
Sennett’s Notes on the Ornithology of the Lower Rio Grande, 
Texas. — Mr. Sennett’s contribution on one hundred and fifty-one species 
of birds observed on the southern border of Texas * is a paper of more 
than ordinary interest for one of its kind, the descriptions in many cases 
being almost a biography of the species, a number being those of which 
we have had but little or no previous information, and it covers ground 
quite new ornithologically, or at least not recently worked over. The 
main collecting field extended from a short distance above Hidalgo, on 
the Rio Grande, to Point Isabel on the coast, near the mouth of the river, 
a distance of three hundred miles by water and one hundred by road. 
The period covered was from the latter part of March to the middle of 
May, or just about two months. Mr. Sennett certainly collected under 
many annoyances, but intensely hot days, and numbers of centipedes, 
rattlesnakes, tarantulas, fleas, woodticks, and red bugs did not prevent 
his securing some five hundred birds, one of which is new to science, 
namely, Sennett’s Warbler ( Parula nigrilora). 
The paper is most carefully commentated by Dr. Coues, who gives 
detailed descriptions of the plumages, with pertinent remarks respecting 
the above-named Warbler, Molothrus ceneus (our new Cowbird, with a red 
eye), Myiarchus crinitus erythrocercus (which is the variety of the Great- 
crested Flycatcher occurring, and not cooperi or cinerascens ), Amazilia 
cerviniventris (the Rufous-bellied- Hummer), Glaucidium ferrugineum (both 
the second examples taken within our limits), and AEchmoptila ctlbifrons 
(the White-fronted Pigeon), as also the characters of this genus, which 
the doctor proposes for the group of Pigeons to which albifrons belongs. 
The Yellow-throated Warbler obtained is typical Dendrceca dominica 
albilora, which, Dr. Coues remarks, “ seems to prevail, if it be not the only 
form, in the Mississippi Basin and Texas.” Mr. Sennett got a single 
specimen of the Missouri Skylark, and saw others ; interesting, as Coues 
says, “on account of the locality, which is the southernmost on record.” 
The Quails are true subspecies texana. The skins of Peuccea cassini are 
valuable as proving by their plumage that the species is a good one. A 
specimen of the Painted Finch or Nonpareil was shot, which, though in 
* Notes on the Ornithology of the Lower Bio Grande, Texas, from Obser- 
vations made during the Season of 1877. By George B. Sennett. Edited, with 
Annotations, by Dr. Elliott Coues, U. S. A. Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geograph. 
Survey, Yol. IY, pp. 1-66, February 5, 1878. 
