after ripe bananas. Possibly it was a northern variety of the 

 Yellow-eared Honey-eater [Ptilotis lewinii). The Fasciated 

 Honey-eater (P. fasciogularis) is mentioned once or twice. Is it 

 an accepted fact that this mangrove-loving bird is found so far 

 north ? " Moor-goody," Mr. Banfield informs us, is the blacks' 

 name for a Shrike-Thrush ; is it the larger or smaller rufous kind ? 

 Possibly the latter, Colluricincla pravissima — a sweet-voiced 

 songster. 



" Tropic Days " is illuminated by a selection of choice photo- 

 graphs taken by the author's friends — D. Le Souef, W. E. 

 Perroux, and Caroline Hordern. Two pictures — " Macaranga " 

 plants and " Cycad and Palms " — above the last-mentioned name 

 verily breathe the " spirit of the bush." 



THE TUBINARES. 



Professor Leverett Mills Loomis, Director of the Californian 

 Academy of Sciences, is the author of an important memoir, being 

 " A Review of the Albatrosses, Petrels, and Diving Petrels," 

 including an account of the expedition of the Academy to the 

 Galapagos Islands, 1905-6. It is " the last word," in a double 

 sense, on the great and interesting order Tubinares (tube-nosed 

 swimmers), and for an academic production is free from pedantry, 

 and vernacular names are liberally employed ; this is appreciated 

 by the " man in the street," without detracting in the least from 

 the scientific value of the work. 



The work opens with a " Historic Sketch " of the periods — 

 Couesian, Salvinian, and Godmanian — with portraits of these 

 respective authors. Then follow " Geographic Distribution "— 

 areas, super-areas, sub-areas ; " Migration " — in the southern 

 hemisphere, in the northern hemisphere, &c. ; " Variation " — 

 age, seasonal &c. ; " Classification and Nomenclature," and 

 concludes with " Remarks " on the species of the Pacific Ocean 

 adjacent to North America and the Galapagos. 



Professor Loomis' s definition of a " species " is very concise, 

 and his "Groups of Species" instructive, while he is delightfully 

 frank on " The Sub-Species Question." " In theory," he states, 

 "sub-species arc incipient species ; in fact, sub-species are attempts 

 to forecast the future geographical variation, which no one can 

 see. Naturally, much difference of opinion has arisen in the 

 application of the sub-species theory. Some ornithologists w^ould 

 differentiate all discernible geographic variations into sub-species ; 

 others would make selections and have ' practical sub-species.' 

 Under the first method the separations become so fine that even 

 typical examples can scarcely be determined. Under the second 

 method the separations rest largely on the shifting sands of 

 individual opinion. It is obvious that the sub-species theory 

 has complicated, not simplified, the study of birds. Nevertheless, 

 the theory has served a highly useful purpose ; it has revealed to 

 ornithologists geographic variation, which is a variation within 



