94 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Oct. 



BOOK NOTICES. 



Birds of New York.- — By Elon Howard Eaton. Part 2, 

 General Chapters; Land Birds. New York State Museum, 

 Albany, N.Y., Memoir 12. 



In the June, 1910, issue of The Ottawa Naturalist, we 

 noted the appearance of Part 1, a volume of 390 pages, of the 

 Birds of New York, which volume discussed the Water Birds 

 and Game Birds. Part 2, as aloove mentioned treats of the 

 Land Birds and istrtily a magnificent contribution to American 

 ornithology. It is a much larger volume, consisting of 543 

 pages. In Part 1 , there are 42 full paged coloured plates, whereas 

 in Part 2, there are no less than 106. 



With the presentation of Part 2, the entire field of work 

 as originally planned by the author is covered. Students of 

 birds everywhere will be delighted at the completion of this 

 exhaustive memoir. The coloured plates, which are from 

 drawings by Mr. Louis Agassiz Fuertes, are indeed excellent 

 in every way. 



The introductory charter of Part 2 discusses Bird Ecology 

 (pp. 5-46.) This is followed by a chapter on The Economic 

 Value of Birds (pp. 46-51.) In the author's own words "the 

 main value of birds is in holding tree and crop enemies in check. 

 Modern methods of fighting injurious insects seem, in some 

 cases, to render the aid of birds unnecessary, but the special 

 value of the bird's work consists in attacking insect pests which 

 are not reached by poison spray and at seasons of the vear 

 when spraying is not practised, thereby preventing outbreaks 

 which otherwise would cause great destruction and expense." 

 In this chapter the \-alue of birds as weed seed destrovers is 

 also discussed. Other chapters which follow are "The Status 

 of our Bird Laws," "Special Measures for Increasing Bird Life," 

 "Bird Refugees" and "Pri\-ate Preserves." These are all 

 of extreme interest. Then follows the main portion of the work, 

 viz., the description of genera and species of the land birds. This 

 occupies pages 61-541. Many text figures appear in thispart. 

 The Birds of Prey are first treated of. Each species is discussed 

 under sub-headings, such as description, distribution, habits, 

 etc. These are followed by an account of the Paroquet, the 

 Cuckoos, Kingfishers, etc., the Wood])eckers, the Swifts, etc., etc., 

 tmtil a complete treatment of the land birds is given. 



