Recent Literature.

STEARNS AND COUES'S "NEW ENGLAND BIRD LIFE."* — After many years of waiting we at length have a work on New England birds of which no ornithologist need feel ashamed. Indeed, this goes without saying when it is known that "New England Bird Life" is edited by Dr. Coues. It is a timely little volume and forms so important an addition to the literature of the subject of which it treats that we propose to consider it at some length.

Immediately following the somewhat significant "Editor's Preface" is an Introduction," which includes exceedingly useful chapters on the classification and structure of birds; the "Preparation of Specimens for Study"; the " Subject of Faunal Areas"; and the "Literature of New England Ornithology." This preliminary portion occupies fifty pages, not one of which can be considered superfluous. The main body of the work comprises two hundred and seventy pages and treats the successive families in order, from the Thrushes through the Crows and Jays, thus embracing the whole order of Oscines. It is a pity that so many of our works are similarly incomplete, but in the present case we are assured that Part I is “to be followed as soon as practicable, by a second volume, completing the treatise "; and perhaps it is not too much to hope that nothing will occur to prevent the fulfilment of this promise.

The intended scope of the book is thus trenchantly defined in the Preface: "It is the object of the present volume to go carefully over the whole ground, and to present, in concise and convenient form, an epitome of the Bird-life of New England. The claims of each species to be considered a member of the New England Fauna are critically examined, and not one is admitted upon insufficient evidence of its occurrence within this area; the design being to give a thoroughly reliable list of the Birds, with an account of the leading facts in the life-history of each species. The plan of the work includes brief descriptions of the birds themselves, enabling one to identify any specimen he may have in hand; the local distribution, migration, and relative abundance of every species; together with as much general information respecting their habits as can conveniently be brought within the compass of a hand-book of New England Ornithology."

This plan is fully and consistently followed to the end, never slighted, seldom overstepped. The specific characters are given in the very simplest language but usually with sufficient definiteness to meet all the

* New England Bird Life, being a Manual of New England Ornithology, revised and edited from the manuscript of Winfrid A. Stearns, Member of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, etc., by Dr. Elliott Coues, U. S. A., Member of the Academy, etc. Part IOscines. Boston, Lee and Shepard, Publishers. New York, Charles T. Dillingham, 1881, 8vo. pp. 324, numerous woodcuts.

requirements of that class of readers for whom they are presumably intended, while the biographical passages, although containing little that is new, are always apt and interesting. The references to previous records, as might be expected, form a marked feature; in the case of the more important species, especially, they are so accurately collated. so dispassionately weighed, and so conveniently grouped that they cannot fail to render the work of the utmost value to even the most advanced student of the subject. There are no new features of classification, but it will be noticed that the nomenclature has in most cases been arranged in accordance with some important changes which have been recently proposed. The illustrations are fairly numerous, mainly technical in character, and all taken from Dr. Coues's previous works.

It is, of course, not to be expected that such a book will be entirely free from errors, especially when we consider the fact that its editor (who, it should be stated, announces himself “responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the work ") has had little personal experience with New England birds as such. Those which do occur usually affect the breeding distribution of the birds to which they relate. In most cases this is made out with great judgment and in strict accordance with known facts, but where the positive evidence is incomplete there are indications that the editor occasionally gave free scope to his prophetic fancy. This running ahead of the records is a dangerous business, despite Dr. Coues's masterly argument in defence of "logical deductions" and the "logical results of ratiocination." Birds, like many other beings, sometimes take it into their heads to be erratic, and thus disappoint the prophets in various ways. It is not always safe to base a positive general statement on one or two exceptional occurrences, while it is even more hazardous to fill absolute blanks from the analogy furnished by known parallel cases. This may be appropriately demonstrated by considering some of the following quotations from "New England Bird Life.”

Turdus pallasi.—“The Hermit Thrush is another bird whose breeding range draws a line between the two principal Faunæ of New England, being restricted in the breeding season to the Canadian Fauna, as the Wood Thrush is to the Alleghanian." In point of fact, the Hermit Thrush breeds regularly in Massachusetts at many places in Essex and Middlesex Counties, and on Cape Cod in abundance. Authenticated nests have been taken at Gloucester, Beverly, and Concord, while in June and July we have heard many males singing near Hyannis, Marston's Mills, and Osterville. Its distribution in the breeding season, so far from being, as is elsewhere stated, closely coincident with that of Swainson's Thrush, is rather to be compared with that of the Olive-sided Flycatcher, which breeds generally and most abundantly throughout the Canadian Fauna; locally and sparingly, but still regularly, in the Alleghanian, and perhaps occasionally just within the northern boundary of the Carolinian.

Regulus calendula.—The Ruby-crowned Kinglet, given as "one of the many birds which mark the distinction between the Canadian and Alleghanian Faunæ, being apparently limited by the former in its southward

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range during the breeding season," has not actually been ascertained to breed in the Canadian Fauna at all. Boardman alone has catalogued it as a rare summer visitant," but none of the recent investigators have detected it excepting in the migrations. Its southward range in summer is much more likely to prove limited by the Hudsonian than the Canadian Fauna.

Certhia familiaris.-The statement that "the Brown Creeper is resident throughout New England and a common bird in all suitable localities" is perhaps not sufficiently qualified by the reservation that it breeds "chiefly in the Canadian Fauna." The three southern New England States have now been comparatively well explored, and the record by Mr. Allen of a nest seen at Springfield, and another by Dr. Brewer of one found near Taunton, with Mr. Merriam's simple statement that it "breeds" in Connecticut, are all the reliable data that we have for attributing it to the Alleghanian Fauna of New England: Opposed to this is the great mass of negative testimony on the part of numerous local observers who have never found the bird in summer at all. While it must be admitted that there is something to be said on both sides of the question, we cannot at present believe that the breeding of the Creeper south of the Canadian Fauna is otherwise than a rare and exceptional occurrence.

Anthus ludovicianus.-"The manner of the Titlark's presence in New England" is decidedly not "similar to that of the Shore Lark" for, as Mr. Purdie has insisted (Bull. N. O. C., Vol. I, p. 73, Sept. 1876 and II, p. 17, Jan. 1877), the former normally occurs only as a spring and fall migrant, while the Shore Lark regularly winters. Dr. Brewer is the sole authority for the wintering of the Titlark in Massachusetts, and if there was no mistake about the instances he records they were unquestionably exceptional. The negative evidence in this case is unusually conclusive. It would not be difficult to produce a dozen reliable persons who have had many years' experience in winter collecting along the Massachusetts coast who yet have never seen a Titlark there after November. Our own experience is that the species arrives from the north about the middle of September, is at the height of its abundance during the latter part of that month and the first half of October, and wholly disappears before the close of November to reappear in April, when it is less frequently seen and apparently more irregular in its movements.

Dendroca cærulescens.--Despite the fact that three identified nests of the Black-throated Blue Warbler have been found in Connecticut, "its local distribution in New England" cannot fairly be considered as "coincident" with that of Dendroca virens. The latter breeds regularly throughout the whole of New England and is, if anything, rather commoner in summer in the pine woods of Eastern Massachusetts than among the spruces and firs of the more northern States, while the Black-throated Blue Warbler is, to say the least, mainly confined to the Canadian Fauna. The statement that "it has been observed in summer in Massachusetts presumably relates to Allen's record (Birds of Springfield, p. 62) of its being found in the breeding season on Mt. Holyoke (C. W. Bennett)

and along the ridges in the western part of the State (B. Horsford).” But these elevated places are both outlying spurs of the Canadian region and many strictly Canadian species, such as the Black Snowbird, regularly breed there. The occurrence of nests at Eastford, Connecticut, is certainly hard to understand, but the explanation may probably be found in some peculiar feature of the locality where they were taken. At all events there are at present no sufficient reasons for regarding them as other than exceptional examples.

Siurus nævius. In the "Birds of the Colorado Valley” (p. 301) Dr. Coues asserted that the Northern Water Thrush "breeds in the greater part if not the whole of its North American range,” and in the present work this view is substantially reiterated in the following terms: " Being a species of the widest distribution in North America, the Water Thrush is found in all suitable situations in New England, where it is a summer resident, and more or less abundant according to circumstances in no way connected with geographical or faunal areas." Waiving for the present any discussion of the question at large, we will confine ourselves to a consideration of the character of the bird's presence in New England. Upon examining the records it appears that no identified nest has ever been found south of the limits of the Canadian Fauna. In the "Catalogue of the Birds of Springfield" Mr. Allen stated that "apparently a few breed here," but as he has reversed this opinion in his later "List of the Birds of Massachusetts," the presumption is that there was some mistake about the earlier observations. Mr. Merriam surmises that "possibly a few occasionally remain and breed in Connecticut." All the other authors (save Minot, whose testimony on questions of this kind is inadmissible) agree in considering the Water Thrush as a spring and fall migrant in the three southern New England States. Going by the records alone, Dr. Coues will find it difficult to maintain his position, while if the unwritten testimony on the subject were produced we fancy that it would go very strongly against his view of the case. Certainly there are no present grounds for believing that the Northern Water Thrush breeds at all in New England south of the Canadian Fauna.

Collurio borealis.--The breeding of the Northern Shrike anywhere south of the Fur Countries is at present so much a matter of uncertainty, owing to the recently developed fact that the Loggerhead has frequently come in where he did not belong and wilfully muddled the records, that we cannot but think that Dr. Coues would have been wiser had he avoided taking any positive stand in this much disputed question. The comparison of its presence with that of the Black Snowbird, is manifestly inappropriate, while the prophecy that "it will doubtless be found to breed in the highest parts of Massachusetts can scarcely be warranted by any

of the known facts.

Taken for all in all, however, "New England Bird Life" is remarkably free from errors of every kind: we doubt if there is another outsider who could have come among us and done so well, but it must not be overlooked that Mr. Purdie helped "in collating and sifting the scattered

records," an assistance which was a practical guarantee against any very gross errors.

To say that the book is exceedingly well-written would be doing it scant justice. Dr. Coues's brilliant talents in this respect are already well known, but we have perhaps never had so striking a proof of them as is afforded by the present volume. The work has been done so thoroughly that in point of completeness it is almost perfect; so consistently that but few points are open to criticism; so concisely that one hundred and thirty-eight species are treated in two hundred and seventy octavo pages. And the arrangement of the whole is masterly. Gracefully turned descriptive passages and sparkling bits of commentary everywhere enliven the substructure of fact, as the brighter colors of an old piece of tapestry set off its more sombre background. Those who are familiar with such works as the "Birds of the North-west" and " Birds of the Colorado Valley will have no difficulty in judging for themselves to what extent the editor acted on the author's permission "in revising, and to some extent rewriting" the latter's notes for publication.

There is, however, one feature which we cannot approve, and which will doubtless be regretted by all who are familiar with the history of the case on which it bears. We allude to the numerous comments on the records left by a late well-known ornithologist. The strictures themselves are in many, perhaps most, cases just, but they are characterized by a certain bitterness of tone which implies a lack of respect for the memory of an opponent who is no longer able to speak in his own defence.

It remains to make some reference to the ostensible author of the work. Simply, then, Mr. Stearns may be congratulated on his wise choice of an editor.-W. B.

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CORY'S BEAUTIFUL AND CURIOUS Birds. - Part III of Mr. Cory's work* treats of Menura superba, the well known Australian Lyre Bird; Diphyllodes respublica, a peculiar Bird of Paradise found on Batarra and the Waigiou Islands in the Malay Archipelago; and the Ruff (Machetes pugnax). The latter is of interest to American ornithologists as an occasional straggler from Europe, where, as in Asia and Africa, it is widely distributed and generally known, and is especially noteworthy for its pugnacious disposition and remarkable plumage.

The plates in the present number fully sustain the high degree of excellence which characterized those of the earlier ones. That of the Lyre Bird is notably fine; the coloring is rich and soft, while the wonderful details of the lyre-shaped tail are executed with great clearness and delicacy. The iridescent hues of the Bird of Paradise are also well managed. The work is well worthy of the patronage of those who may desire excellent life-size figures of a series of exceptionally remarkable forms of bird-life, with the accompaniment of appropriate text.--J. A. A.

* See this Bulletin, Vol. V, p. 236 and Vol. VI, p. III.