Book News and Reviews 



39 



Survey is demonstrated in an imprcssiNc 

 way by this brief rc\ icw of its labors dur- 

 ing the past year. 



The division of I'.rononiit Mammalogy 

 and Orthology has completed bulletins on 

 the house rat, ground squirrels, wolf and 

 coyote bounties, mammals of the arid 

 interior, muskrats, deer farming and Cali- 

 fornia birds in relation to agriculture; and 

 it has in preparation others on Wood- 

 peckers, Flycatchers, shore birds, and the 

 food of wild Ducks. 



Special field investigations were made 

 among the field mice of Nevada (where the 

 efforts of a Survey, seconded by those of 

 Hawks, Owls, Gulls and coyotes has reduced 

 the number of field mice from some 12,000 

 an acre to five or six per acre), and in relation 

 to fencing sheep from wolves and coyotes, 

 on ditch-boring mammals, the depreda- 

 tions by kangaroo rats, and inoles, the 

 relation of birds to the boll weevil, the 

 English Sparrow in southern California, 

 on birds in relation to wheat aphids and 

 on the diseases of wild Ducks. 



In the Division of Geographic Distribu- 

 tion field work was carried on in New 

 Mexico, Utah, Georgia, Alabama, Mis- 

 sissippi, Tennessee and South Carolina. 



The Division of Game Protection has 

 rendered a most effective service through 

 the distribution of its bulletins on game 

 protection and propagation, and its work 

 in connection with Bird Reservations, now 

 51 in number, and its supervision of the 

 importation of foreign mammals and birds. 



The 'Outline of Work for 1910' shows 

 no indication of decrease in the activity of 

 this Bureau which indeed is rendering an 

 increasingly effective service to the public. 

 — F. M. C. 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The Auk. — The January number opens 

 with an illustrated paper by Dr. C. W. 

 Townsend and Mr. A. C. Bent, entitled 

 'Additional Notes on the Birds of Labra- 

 dor.' Forty species of water birds and 

 fifty-three of land birds are listed, — a 

 goodly number for a desolate region where 

 birds are scarce. In this connection it is 



of interest to read, on another page, of 

 'Audubon's Labrador Trip of 1833,' by 

 Mr. R. Deane, who has pleasantly brought 

 together a recent letter from Dr. Wm. 

 Ligalls, the only surviving member of the 

 party, and one from Audubon himself, 

 written while in I^abrador. 



In contrast to the bleak Labrador 

 country, we read of 'One Hundred Breed- 

 ing Birds of an Illinois Ten-mile Radius,' 

 which Mr. I. E. Hess records in Champaign 

 county. Mr. W. F. Henninger has notes 

 on a few rare birds of Ohio, illustrating 

 his article with photographs of the King 

 Rail; while some winter birds of Wayne 

 county, Michigan, are recorded by Mr. J. 

 C. Wood, and others, of Ottawa, Canada, 

 by Mr. G. Eifrig. 



Several photographs of the nests of the 

 Arizona Hooded Oriole accompany an 

 article on 'The Palm-Leaf Oriole,' by 

 Mrs. F. M. Bailey. The birds frequent, 

 it is true, the fan palms so extensively 

 planted for ornament along the streets 

 of southern California towns; but in ver- 

 nacular names the utmost conservatism 

 should prevail, and it is to be observed 

 that on one of the photos appears "Palm- 

 Leaf " and on the other "Hooded," 

 neither of which is the distinctive "Ari- 

 zona," by which name this race has always 

 been known. The most that can be asked 

 of a vernacular name is that it be dis- 

 tinctive, — its appropriateness is quite 

 another matter. 



Dr. L. B. Bishop describes 'Two New 

 Subspecies of North American Birds,' 

 a Long-billed Curlew (Numenius ameri- 

 canus parvus) and a Cowbird (Molothrus 

 ater dwighti), both races being carved from 

 material representing the extreme northern 

 limits of familiar species, although the 

 Curlew is nearly extinct in the East. 



Messrs. A. H. Wright and A. A. Allen 

 submit data on 'The Increase of Austral 

 Birds at Ithaca' (N. Y.). It is well to re- 

 member that the apparent increase of 

 birds of a given area is frequently the result 

 of more careful observations, sometimes 

 combined with lucky discoveries, and noth- 

 ing is more difficult than securing a bird 

 census that is worth while. 



