110 
Recent Literature. 
room. This nest — a most uncomfortable affair, about the depth of 
a soup-plate — was made of large rough sticks, some of them about 
ten inches long, which they brought and laid on the outside of the 
window-sill, if the window remained closed, for the occupant of the 
room to add to the nest, which she faithfully did, and the nest was 
soon completed, the inner lining being dry grass and straw. But 
one egg was laid in this rude nest in its present location, inasmuch 
as the male one day decided the fate of “household and home,” by 
bringing to his mate a large Gopher snake, which twirled itself 
around his beak more than half alive, whereupon, with a peculiar 
nervous sensation, the lady immediately removed their lodging to 
the “ cold ground ” among the cactus, where the birds hatched a 
promising brood, and again brought them to the house for food, like 
chickens. The young birds are much like young turkeys, and at 
full size are about as large as half-grown turkey-hens. The “ Road- 
Runner ” particularly mentioned never forgot its attachment to 
Miss Davies, and would follow her everywhere after its chicks were 
grown ; they only parted when the family left the country, — 
leaving the birds behind, which they now regret. 
San Rafael, Cal. 
iUrcnt iltteratuw. 
Aughey’s Notes on the Food of the Birds of Nebraska. — In 
a paper of fifty pages,* contributed to the “ Report of the United States 
Entomological Commission for 1877,” Professor Aughey records his obser- 
vations on the food of the birds of Nebraska, with especial reference to 
their locust-eating propensities. These observations extend over a period 
of thirteen years, and include the examination of the stomachs of probably 
a thousand specimens. He says: “Up to the present year [1877] my 
studies in this field have been pursued with no thought of a publication of 
the results, but simply from a love for such pursuits, and hence my notes 
are not as complete as they otherwise would have been.” Yet we find 
under a large number of the species tabulated statements of the contents 
of the stomachs of from two to a dozen or more specimens of each species, 
* Notes on the Nature of the Food of the Birds of Nebraska. By Professor 
Samuel Aughey, of Lincoln, Neb. First Ann. Kep. U. S. Ent. Com. for the 
Year 1877. Appendix II, pp. 13 - 62. 1878. 
