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Bird - Lore 



Carolina birds, we have, in addition to the 

 309 species recorded from the coast region, 

 a further list of 28 species from the interior 

 of the state, making 337 the total for 

 South Carolina. 



Possibly no other person in this country 

 — or for that matter, any country — has 

 given more time to collecting and observ- 

 ing the bird-life of a comparatively 

 limited area during the past quarter of 

 a century than has Mr. Wayne. Further- 

 more, he has been exceptionally well 

 situated to add to our knowledge of 

 birds. Not only is his region possessed 

 of unusual historic and faunal interest for 

 the student of birds, but during the period 

 under consideration he has been almost 

 the only worker in it. His book, therefore, 

 is an exceptionally welcome addition to 

 the literature of birds. Without speculat- 

 ing on the results which might have been 

 achieved by twenty-five years' definitely 

 directed attention to biographical prob- 

 lems, rather than to collecting, recording 

 and incidental observing, we have here an 

 authoritative exposition of the status of 

 bird-life on the coast of South Carolina, 

 by a person whose experience has thor- 

 oughly qualified him to present it. The 

 annotations average about two-thirds of a 

 page for each species, and include re- 

 marks on numerical abundance, haunts, 

 times of occurrence, breeding-dates, size 

 and color of the eggs, number of broods, 

 and various comments usually to the 

 point and of value. Mr. Wayne has a 

 keen scent for the errors of other authors 

 who directly or indirectly have written 

 of the birds of what may in truth be called 

 his region, and devotes no small part 

 of his space to their correction. In view 

 of his generally critical and discriminating 

 attitude, it is, therefore, surprising to find 

 that he endorses the theory that the 

 extinction of the Passenger Pigeon (Ecto- 

 pistes) is in part due to its having been 

 "drowned in multitudes in the Gulf of 

 Mexico during migrations." 



Dr. Rea gives an excellent historical 

 introduction, and there is a useful bibliog- 

 raphy, forming in all the most note- 

 worthv book on birds which has been 



published in any Austroriparian state. — 

 F. M. C. 



The Methods and Uses of a Research 

 Museum. By Joseph Grinnell. Pop- 

 ular Science Monthly, August, 1910, 

 163-169. 



Developed on the lines laid down by 

 Mr. Grinnell in the present paper, it is clear 

 that the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology 

 of the University of California, of which 

 he is Director, will become a model in- 

 stitution. He very properly, in our opinion, 

 selects for his special field the Pacific 

 Coast. Here, as he says, he has a practi- 

 cally inexhaustible region, one, too, of 

 exceptional interest, which he is more 

 favorably situated to work than any 

 other place, or than any other person not 

 resident in it. 



Not only are specimens collected, but 

 information in regard to them secured and 

 recorded with camera and pen, and these 

 data are so filed that they may be as 

 accessible as the specimens themselves. 

 The Museum, then, will become a "re- 

 pository of facts," and eventually will 

 have a collection of the batrachians, rep- 

 tiles, birds, and mammals of the area it 

 covers so labeled that it will be an ade- 

 quate representation of the conditions 

 which existed when the collections were 

 made.— F. M. C. 



Abridged Check-List of North Ameri- 

 can Birds. New York City. American 

 Ornithologists' Union, 1910. 5^x3^^ 

 inches, 77 printed — 77 blank pages. 



This is a very convenient pocket list of 

 the scientific and common names of 

 North American birds, abridged from the 

 third edition of the 'Check-List' of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union, which 

 was reviewed in the last number of Bird- 

 Lore. Every printed page is faced by a 

 blank page for the reception of notes or 

 comments. The list will, therefore, be of 

 use in the study or in the field, or it may 

 be employed for labeling. It can be pur- 

 chased for twenty-five cents, postpaid, 

 from J. Dwight, Jr., Treas., American 

 Ornithologists' Union, American Museum 

 of Natural History, New York City. — 

 F. M. C. 



