Birds of Morris County, New Jersey

x885.]
]?ecen•
ϥt'terature.
4_2I
swifts, hummingøbirds, night-hawks, etc.. in which there is never anv
emargination.
"Again, the emargination varies in extent, being limited in many bird.•
to the first primary alone, and to the extreme apical portion of this; in
others it occurs on the apical portion only, say for two to four inches, of
perhapsthe outer four to six primaries; while in very many birds, inclading the turkey bnzzard and its allies, and many hawks, it extends to the
basal third or fourth of all the outer primaries.
"}laving now shown that interlocking does not and cannot take place•
it may be worth while further to point out flint it isunnecessary.
"In a soaring bird, no great muscular tension is called into action.
The large pectoral muscles,which move the wings up and down• are in a
state ofequilibrinm, and under very slight tension, not more tl•an are •l•e
muscles of a man's arm when the arm is in an ordinary position of rest.
The mechanism of the bony fi'amework is such, as has been ah'eady
shown, that the wing is kept extended in such a way that there can be
only very slight strain on any of the numerousmusclesof the wing itsell;
The extension of the primaries is automatically etl•cted by the extension
of the wing, and results in no special strain, when once the wing is fully
extended,upon any of the muscleswhosefunction is to flex and extend
the outer orphalangeal segments of the pinion. Ilence the comparison
made at the meeting of December x2th, of a man's arm held extended
at a right angle to the body, in an unnatural position, with a bird's wing
held extended in soaring, in a perfectly natural position, was wholly
irrelevant.
"The hypothesisof the interlocking of the primaries during protracted
soaring, to conserve energy and lessen fatigue, has not only no basis in
fact, bat is entirely gratuitous."--E. C.
Birds of Morris County, New Jersey.--Nearly a year ago the list to
which attention is now called* was published in a local newspaper, and
as the distribntion of NexvJerseybirds is known inferentiallyrather than
by any recentand reliablepublishedinformation,such an excellentlist
as the presentone seemsworthy of wider notice. It is the result of over
four years'work in the northernpart of the Stateand numbers2o5 species
and subspecies,
not a large number,to be sure,but it mast be remembered
that Morris county is inland, and the usual array of water birds that
goes to swell many lists is thereforewanting, although some occur as
stragglers. The summer residentsare mostly Alleghanian with a considerable sprinkling of Carolinian forths, such as Cardinalls cardinalt5,
Set'urttsmotacilla, Mt'ntus•olyfflottos, Thryothorus ludow'c•'anus,P•tru.•
bicolor, and others less distinctive, while little needs be said of the
migrantsand accidentalvisitors recorded. Fe•v local lists can boastof
two speciesrelegatedto the hypotheticalllst of the A. O. U. CheckList
A specimenof Helm[utho•ht'lalawreucei, and txvoof t[. leucobro•tchhtlL•
*A List of Birds of Morris County, New Jersey. By E. Carleton Thurber. True
DemocraticBanner,Morristown,N.J., Nov. xo, x7,24, x887.
422
Recen/ [•t'tcralttrc.
[October
are here recorded,and referenceis made to tbe type of the lk•rmerspecies
secured just over the line, in Essex County.
The brief annotations retbr
mostly to tbeabundanceof the speciesand the datesof rare capturesare
usually given. There are lk)ur species that one would expect to find in-
eludedwhichlmveevidentlynotbeenmetwith by our author,L e,
doJtax ]•tt.•t'llus lraillii, E. acadt'cus, Geolhlyjbis•brmosa, and
•tl[ct'(e(including, perhaps, blcknelli). These are found near Nexv York
City, where the fimna may be said to be ahnost identical with that of
Mm'ris County, but wltb these exceptionsthe list seemscomplete savefor
tbc probable fi•ture records of accidental visitors. Though ]•orzana
carolina is called a "common migrant," it has been known to breed in
the County near XVhippany,and it may breedabundantly. Ammoclramu.•
cattat•tctt•tt$
is said to be "not nncommon." Occurring as it does on fresh
water marshes, the question naturally suggestsitseli',may this not he
ttel.•ont'• Further comment seems unnecessary. The list bears evide•ce
of unusnal care in its compilation,and is wortbyof more prominence
than is foundin the columnsof a local newspaper.--J. D., Jm
Publications Received.--Blasius• Rudolf. (•) Die Vogelxvelt der Stadt
Braunschweig und ihrer niichsten Umgebung.
(Verein flit Naturw. zu
Braunschweig,V Jabresber.fiir •886-87, pp. 59-xx6.) (2) 3[crgrusanotart'us Eimbeck, eln Bastard zwischen )l•lerffusalbellus Linn. und Glaucœon
cla•4rttlaLinn. (Monatschrift des Deutschen Vereins zum Schutzeder
Vogelwelt, XII Jahrg., x887,No. x4.)
Blasius, R., A. Reichenow, u. and. X. Jahresbericht (x885) desAusschussesfiir Beobachtungsstationender V6gel Deutschlands. (Jom'n. t'iir
Orn., Oct. xSS7, pp. 337-648.)
Blasius, Wilh. (x) Die V6gel yon Palawan. (Ornis, •$S.) (2)
BeitrS.
ge zur Kenntnissder Vogelfimnayon Celel)e.•.III. (Zeitschriœt
ftir
die ges. Ornithologie, •886, Heft 3')
Evermann, B. W., and O. P. Jenkins. Ornithology fi'om a Railroad
Train. (Orn. lit O61., May,
Lucas. F.A. Tbe Home of the Great Auk. (Pop. Set.Monthly,Aug.
iSSS,pp. 456-464.)
Ramsey, E. P. Catalogue of the Australian Accipitres or 1)iurnal
Birds of Prey inbabiting Australia, in the Collection of the Australian
Museum at Sidney. N. S.W. 8vo., x876. (From Australian Museum,
•vitl• eight other publicationsof the Museum.)
Shufeldt,R.W. Osteologyof l)orzanacaroh'n•t. (Journ.Comp.Med.
& Surg.,July, x888.)
Tschusi zu Schmidhoffen,Victor Ritter von. Die Vcrbreitung und der
Zug des Tannenhehers(2Vuct_'/ka•,a
caryoca&tctcs
L.), mir besonderer
Berficksichtigungseines Auftretens im tlerbste und Winter, •885, und
Bemcrkungentiber seine beiden Varietaten: 2V'ztct•/3'a'•ra
caryocatacles
]htc/tyr,•,ynchtts
undle]3toriyltc]tu•'
R. Bias. (Verhandl.derk. k. zoologischbotanischenGesells.in Wien, Jahrg. xSSS,
pp. 4o7-5o6,pl. xi.) (2) Die
ornithologi•che Literatur Oe•terrelch-Ungarns, x887. (Mirth. des Orn.