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Recent Literature . 
Quails were destroyed in a single year. He also refers to the great destruc- 
tion of the eggs and young of birds by the prairie fires in the month of 
June, and recommends that the burning of the prairies later than the 
middle of April or the first of May should be prohibited by stringent legis- 
lation. Referring to the destruction of bird-life by this cause he says : “ In 
June, 1869, I passed over a small portion of Wayne County behind a 
raging prairie fire. In one hour I found ruined nests of 13 Prairie-Chick- 
ens, 9 Quail, 5 Plover, and three others that I did not recognize. In some 
seasons many thousands of nests are destroyed in this way.” 
He also alludes to the wholesale destruction of Blackbirds by poison, 
formerly practised, under the mistaken notion that they were damaging 
the crops. About the year 1865, and for some years previous to this date, 
this mode of destruction prevailed to an alarming degree, to which not only 
Blackbirds, but many other species, fell victims, and appreciably decreased 
in numbers in consequence. He says it was not unusual to see “ piles of 
them ” that had been gathered in the cornfields. He estimates that in 
“ a single autumn, in Dakota County alone, not less than 30,000 birds must 
have been destroyed in this way.” He believes that sooner or later the 
protection of useful birds should become not only a national, but an inter- 
national matter, since, owing to the migratory habits of the species, wide 
areas are affected by the excessive destruction of birds at particular points. 
— J. A. A. 
Langdon’s Revised List of Cincinnati Birds.* — About two years 
ago Mr. Langdon published a catalogue of the birds of the vicinity of Cincin- 
nati, with notes, including 279 species. The present revision of the subject 
gives the numerous additional facts which have meanwhile become known to 
the author, and in recognition of which the list has been entirely remodelled, 
“ to represent the present state of our knowledge of ‘ Cincinnati Birds,’ so far 
as their local distribution is concerned, as well as the later conclusions of the 
most approved authorities in respect to classification and nomenclature.” 
The list is chiefly based upon collections and observations made at two or 
three points between the Great and Little Miami Rivers, within ten or 
twelve miles of the Ohio. The breeders, known or inferred, are marked 
with the asterisk or obelisk. The 256 identified species are of the follow- 
ing categories : Constant residents, 27 ; summer residents, 62 ; winter 
visitants, 10; regular migrants, 82; irregular migrants, 37; casual visit- 
ants, 31 ; species that have disappeared within forty years, 7. There are 
also included 26 “ species of probable occurrence, not yet identified,” nearly 
or quite all of which seem likely to be found. The List is annotated through- 
out with the usual and proper comments on each species, and is concluded 
* A Revised List of Cincinnati Birds. By Frank W. Langdon. 8vo. pampli. 
repaged pp. 27, 200 copies, from Journ. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist., Yol. I, 
No. 4, Jan. 1879, pp. 167-193. 
