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Report on the Immigrations of British 

 Summer Residents in the Spring of 

 1908, etc. Edited by W. R. Ogilvie- 

 Grant. Bulletin. British Ornithologists' 

 Club, Vol. XXIV. 2S5 pages, 29 maps. 

 Witherby & Co., .:i26 High Holborn, 

 London. 



This, the Fourth .\nnual Report of the 

 Committee on bird migration appointed 

 by the British Ornithologists' Club, will 

 be of interest to American readers, both 

 for what it contains as well as for the 

 methods employed in observing and record- 

 ing. 



One is at once impressed with the lim- 

 ited opportunities of the British orni- 

 thologist, when compared with those en- 

 joyed by students of bird migration in 

 this country. Not alone is the area over 

 which a bird's journey may be followed 

 smaller, but the migration itself evidently 

 does not begin to attain the proportions 

 which it reaches with us. Thus, only 

 thirty-four species appear on the regular 

 schedule of migration distributed by the 

 Committee. Nevertheless, the special 

 problems presented by an insular station 

 lend to the study of migratory phenomena 

 in Great Britain an exceptional interest. "In 

 the spring of 1908, the main bulk of the 

 birds had not appeared on the 19th of 

 April. On the 20th, however, the immi- 

 gration commenced in earnest; and on the 

 26th birds began to pour in, the greatest 

 numbers arriving on the 29th, when no less 

 than twenty-four out of the thirly-four 

 specially recorded species arrived in con- 

 siderable numbers. During the following 

 ten days the immigration continued, and 

 culminated on the 9th of May in another 

 great influx, including nineteen different 

 species. After that date the migration 

 began to wane, only three species being 

 recorded on the 12th, and a fortnight later 

 it ceased altogether. It will thus be seen 

 that the main tide of immigration in 1908 

 was of shorter duration than usual, taking 

 place almost entirely between the 26th of 

 April and the 12th of May" — dates, it may 

 be added, which apprt)ximately l)()unfl the 



period of most active migration near New 

 York City, some 600 miles south of south- 

 ern England; a demonstration of the im- 

 portance of isotherms over degrees of 

 latitude in affecting the distribution of life. 

 — F. M. C. 



Wild Life on the Rockies. By Enos 

 A. Mills. Houghton, MifHin &: Co., 

 Boston and New York. 1909. i2mo., 

 viii-262 pages, 25 half-tones from photo- 

 graphs. Price $1.75. 



Enos Mills is the John Muir of the Rock- 

 ies, and every one who knows him will 

 learn with pleasure that he has placed 

 in book form some of the results of his 

 long and loving association with nature 

 in the Rockies; and to those who do not 

 know him we commend these essays as 

 the records of a keen and sympathetic 

 observer, who has established close rela- 

 tions between himself and his environ- 

 ment, the trees and flowers, and wild 

 creatures that inhabit it. 



The keynote of Mr. Mills' book is en- 

 thusiasm and sincerity. He is more than 

 a nature lover, he is a nature worshiper, 

 and he pays here his tribute to the cliffs and 

 peaks, the trees and animals, with which 

 he has lived on terms of exceptional 

 intimacy. — F. M. C. 



Summer Birds of Shaw's Garden. By 

 Otto Widmann. Pages 41-80. Colored 

 frontispiece. Twentieth Annual Report 

 Missouri Botanical Garden. St. Louis. 

 1909. 



Parks are not only often capital places 

 for the study of liirds, but they are the only 

 places available to many residents of 

 cities. We trust, therefore, that this pam- 

 phlet is available to all visitors to the area 

 of which it treats, for it should do much to 

 arouse and direct their interest in birds. 

 It gives us excellent biographical notes on 

 the 40 species of birds which regularly 

 frequent Shaw's Gardens in summer and 

 presumably breed there, and also treats 

 of six others of less frequent occurrence. — 

 F. M. C. 



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