100 



The Canadian Field- Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXIII 



"Hawks Everyone Should Know," "The Wood 

 Warblers," etc. The subjects are treated in a 

 popular, entertaining manner, in a style that more 

 than occasionally warrants the term "fine writing", 

 sympathetically but with an absence of gush and 

 with a good substratum of personal knowledge and 

 common sense. We can stand many more of such 

 popular science writers in Canada as well as else- 

 where. P. A. Taverner. 



In the Auk for April, 1919, appears the fol- 

 lowing titles of especial interest to Canadians: 



Winter robins in Nova Scotia, by Harrison 

 F. Lewis, pp. 205-217. This records the unusual 

 appearance of robins in widely separated localities 

 of Nova Scotia, in late December, January, Febru- 

 ary and early March. The interesting point 

 brought out is that the number of robins increased 

 during the season of greatest cold, culminating in 

 early February in weather below zero and dis- 

 appearing when the temperature moderated. It is 

 suggested that these winter visitors are not unsea- 

 sonably early migrants from the south, but a col- 

 lection of winter lingerers from the north or in- 

 terior gathered together by the unusual inclement 

 weather. 



Problems suggested by nests of wabblers 

 of the Genus Dendroica, by John Tredwell 

 Nichols, pp. 225-228, raises some interesting ques- 

 tions as to the nest-building instinct and the facility 

 or otherwise with which birds substitute new mater- 

 ials of civilization for their ancestral supplies. 



On the popular names of birds, by Ernest 

 Thompson Seton, pp. 229-235, is a plea for more 

 characteristic common names for birds, advocat- 

 ing terms of spontaneous and natural origin over 

 those of more clumsy manufacture. 



The reality of species, by Leverett Mills 

 Loomis, pp. 235-237. This is a short paper dis- 

 cussing the subspecies question. The conclusion 

 of the author (quite in harmony with the ideas of 

 this reviewer) is that whilst the species with its 

 component races is a reality, the lesser subspecific 

 subdivision is but a concept. 



Geographical variations in the black- 

 throated loons, by A. C. Bent, pp. 238-242. 

 This is a brief discussion of the occurrence of these 

 allied species in America. The writer lumps four 

 forms Gavia arctica, the Black-throated Loon, G. 

 pacifica, the Pacific Loon, G. viridigularis, the 

 lately described Green-throated Loon, and G. 

 suschkini, the Asiatic form, in one species as geo- 

 graphical races of G. arciica. Pacifica appears to 

 be the common North American form with viridi- 

 gularis of erratic occurrence on the Pacific coast. 

 He questions the specific, even the subspecific dis- 



tinction of this form as he can limit it to no 

 geographical range. It does not appear that true 

 G. a. arctica, in spite of repeated records to the 

 contrary, has even been satisfactorily recorded from 

 America. 



Reasons for discarding a proposed race of 

 THE glaucus gull (Larus h})perboreus) by John- 

 athan Dwight, pp. 242-248. In this paper Dr. 

 Dwight brings his keen analytical pen to bear on 

 H. C. Oberholser's proposal (Auk, 1918, p. 472) 

 to recognize the rejected northwestern American 

 form Larus barrovianus as a subspecies of the 

 Glaucus Gull. By a series of graphic diagrams 

 he shows that the size distinctions upon which the 

 form is based are too variable for recognition, fur- 

 ther driving his argument home by superimposed 

 cutlines of the average bills of the two supposed 

 races in which the distinction of size is shown to 

 be absuidely small. In conclusion, he says: 



"In our gropings after the truth it is wasteful of 

 too m.uch time to spend so much of it stumbhng over 

 names of groups so poorly defined that they convey 

 only a vague meaning to a few specialists and none 

 at all to evcrybcdy else. Decking the subspecies in 

 all the glittering panoply of diagnosis, dimensions and 

 distribution makes it an impressive spectacle, but this 

 does not necessarily make of it a good subspecies." 



These are sentiments of which the reviewer heart- 

 ily approves. 



The birds of Red Deer river, by P. A. Taver- 

 ner, pp. 248-265. This is the last half of a paper 

 begun in a previous number. Including an addenda 

 it brings the number of species annotated to 194. 



Fourth annual list of proposed changes in 



the a. O. U. check list of north AMERICAN BIRDS 

 by Harry C. Oberholser, pp. 266-273. In this are 

 gathered together all the various proposals of the 

 past year that may affect American Ornithological 

 nomenclature. It dsals with about seventy-two 

 names. Without doubt some of these will be ac- 

 cepted according to the canons of our Code of 

 Nomenclature, but it is a matter of some congratu- 

 lation to us that this lengthy list is one of mere 

 proposal and not accepted fact. These late lists 

 of proposals show that the genus splitter is in full 

 action. It is to be hoped that the committee on 

 nomenclature will bear in mind that the genera is 

 but a conception adopted for convenience and that 

 it defeats iis own end when each genus approaches 

 the monospecific and in place of simplifying our 

 system but adds to its complexity. 



Under General Notes, Harry G. Oberholser, pp. 

 282-283, in Status of the Generic Name Archibuieo 

 decides that Archibuieo is a nomen nudum and 

 therefore untenable and that the next name applic- 

 able for the genus of the Rough-legged Hawks is 



