ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY ENTOMOLOGY. 55 



The observations indicate tliat it does not feed on vegetable matter, although 

 rolled oats seems to be an exception. Freshly killed mice seem to be the fa- 

 vorite diet of the animals under observation. 



Distribution and migration of North American rails and their allies, 

 W. W. Cooke (U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 128 (WIJ,), pp. 50, figs. i9).— This bulletin 

 gives definite information as to the ranges of the several species of North 

 American rails and their allies, the cranes, gallinules, coots, and others, espe- 

 cially in regard to breeding ranges and migrations, and furnishes data to serve 

 as a basis for protective legislation for the species by the States in which they 

 are found. Maps illustrating the distribution and migration supplement the 

 account. 



Birds as carriers of the chestnut blight fungus, F. D. Heald and R. A. 

 Studhalteb {U. S. Dept. Agr., Jour. Agr. Research, 2 (1914), No. 6, pp. 405- 

 422, pis. 2, figs. 2). — This is a detailed report of investigations conducted by 

 this Department in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Chestnut Tree Blight 

 Commission, in which 36 birds belonging to 9 different species were tested. 

 Thirty-two of these were birds which are in the habit of climbing over the trunk 

 and larger branches of trees. Most of the birds were shot from blighted chestnut 

 trees; some directly from blight cankers. The bill, head, feet, tail, and wings 

 of each bird were scrubbed with a brush and poured plates were made from the 

 wash water, which was retained and centrifuged for its sediment. The studies 

 have led the authors to draw the following conclusions: 



" Of the 36 birds tested, 19 were found to be carrying spores of the chestnut 

 blight fungus, Endothia parasitica. The viable spores of the chestnut blight 

 fungus carried by two downy woodpeckers numbered 757,074 and 624,341, re- 

 spectively, while a brown creeper carried 254,019. 



" The cultures from some of the birds showed from 2 to 14 times as many 

 viable spores of the chestnut blight fungus as of all other fungi combined. The 

 highest positive results were invariably obtained from birds shot from two to 

 four days after a period of considerable rainfall. The rate of development in 

 cultures always indicated that the colonies of the chestnut blight fungus origi- 

 nated from pycnospores; pycnospores were generally found in the centrifuged 

 sediments, while ascospores were never detected. The birds were therefore 

 carrying pycnospores only. The pycnospores carried were probably brushed off 

 from either normal or diseased bark, or from both, in the movements of the 

 birds over these surfaces. Both the cultures and an examination of the cen- 

 trifuged sediments showed that the birds were carrying a large number of 

 spores of many species of fungi other than E. parasitica. 



" From the above facts the writers are led to the conclusion that birds in 

 general are important carriers of fungus spores, some of which may belong to 

 parasitic species. Furthermore, many birds which climb or creep over the 

 bark of chestnut trees are important agents in carrying viable pycnospores of 

 the chestnut blight fungus, especially after a period of considerable rainfall. 

 Birds are probably not very important agents in spreading the chestnut blight 

 locally, on account of the predominance of other and more important factors 

 of dissemination, as, for example, the wind. The writers believe, however, 

 that many of the so-called 'spot infections' (local centers of infection isolated 

 from the area of general infection) have had their origin from pycnospores 

 carried by migratory birds. Some of the birds tested were not permanent resi- 

 dents of eastern Pennsylvania, but were shot during their migration north- 

 ward. These, no doubt, carry spores great distances. Each time the bird 

 climbs or creeps over the trunk or limbs of a tree some of the spores may be 

 brushed off and may lodge in crevices or on the rough bark. From this position 



