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Methods of Attracting; Birds. I5y 

 Gilbert H. Trafton. Houfihton, 

 Mifflin & Co. i 2mo., xvi + 171 ]);if.;e-s, 

 39 illustrations. Price, $1.25. 



From a great variety of sources, includ- 

 ing his own experience, Mr. Trafton has 

 here brought together much practical 

 information in regard to bird-houses, 

 feeding-stands, planting, and other means 

 of attracting birds, and adds a chapter on 

 bird protection in schools, which his work 

 as a teacher makes of especial value. The 

 books will answer the frequently asked 

 question as to how to bring birds about 

 our homes in summer, as well as in winter, 

 and it should therefore exercise a wide 

 influence in protecting birds and strength- 

 ening our friendship with them. — F. M. C. 



Life and Behavior of the Cuckoo. By 

 Francis H. Herrick, Journ. of Ex- 

 perimental Zoology, IX, iqio, pp. log- 

 233; plates, 7. 



We very earnestly commend this paper, 

 which we cannot review at the length 

 adequate treatment of it demands, to 

 every student of birds in nature. After 

 a review of the known facts concerning 

 the nesting habits of the European Cuckoo 

 {Cuculus canorus). Professor Herrick adds 

 an elaborate study of the home-life of our 

 Black-billed Cuckoo (pp. 193-232), and 

 reaches the following conclusions: 



"i. Cuckoos do not display more intel- 

 ligence than many other species of birds, 

 the extraordinary acts which many of 

 them perform being sufficiently accounted 

 for by the possession of modified and 

 highly specialized instincts. 



"2. The origin of the parasitism in many 

 of the Old-World Cuckoos and American 

 Cowbirds is to be sought in the disturbance 

 of the cyclical instincts, to which it has 

 been shown that these families of birds 

 are especially subject, and, in particular, 

 in the attunement of egg-laying to nest- 

 building. Sporadic cases of this sort occur 

 in all birds, when they cither drop their 



eggs on the ground and eventually abandon 

 them, or lay in other birds' nests, when 

 they will sometimes fight for possession. 

 We may assume that through the action 

 of inheritance and selection the practice 

 has become established more or less com- 

 pletely in the present parasitic species; 

 but while we can indicate the steps of the 

 process, the causes which have led to each, 

 in succession, can only be surmised. 



"3. American Black- and Yellow-bill 

 Cuckoos show a tendency to produce eggs 

 at irregular intervals of one to two or three 

 days, which accounts for the presence of 

 eggs and young in their nest for a longer 

 time than' is usual; but here the com- 

 parison ends. Any disadvantage whick 

 might arise from such a condition has' been 

 completely allayed by an early division 

 of the young, each one of which (in the 

 Black-bill) leaves the nest in succession 

 on the seventh day from birth, and spends 

 about two weeks in a climbing stage pre- 

 paratory for flight. Special powers and 

 instincts have arisen in the young in adap- 

 tation to this condition. 



"4. The evicting instinct of certain Old 

 World Cuckoos has apparently arisen a£ 

 a response to a contact stimulus of a dis> 

 agreeable kind, which would be more 

 irritating in a living and moving nestling 

 than in a dead one. It is transitory, 

 beginning to rise on the first to third days, 

 and to wane in the tenth to the fourteenth. 



"5. The American Black-billed Cuckoo 

 is born with rudimentary down, which 

 never unfolds. It has strong grasping 

 reflexes, and is remarkably enduring. 

 It can hold by one leg or toe for a sur- 

 prising length of time, and draw itself up 

 to the perch with one or both feet, at birth 

 or shortly after, — powers which no other 

 birds in this part of the world are known 

 to display, and which must be regarded as 

 preparatory to the climbing stage soon to 

 follow. 



"(). On the sixth day. the complete quill 

 stage is reached, when the bird bristles 



(249) 



