250 



Bird - Lore 



with feather-lubes, which bear at their 

 apices the white hair-like tubes of the 

 down. The preening instinct has then 

 asserted itself, and the horny cases of the 

 feather-tubes, giving way to their bases, 

 are rapidly combed off by the bill over the 

 greater part of the bod3^ The wing- and 

 tail-quills, as well as some of the contour- 

 feathers, are released in the usual way. 

 centripetally from their tips. 



"7. Fear is attuned to the climbing 

 stage, and not to that of flight, as in all 

 the common altricious birds, and matures 

 with comparative suddenness on the sixth 

 day, or shortly before the bird is ready to 

 climb. 



"8. Parental instincts arc as strong in 

 the American Cuckoos as in thrushes or 

 in passerine birds generally, and there is 

 no more indication of a retrogression to 

 parasitism in the former than in the latter. 



"9. The nests of these Cuckoos, though 

 slight, are well adapted to their purposes, 

 and often long outlast their use. 



"10 When disturbed in its nest-activi- 

 ties, the Black-bill has been known to 

 transfer its eggs to a new nest of its own; 

 an action which strongly suggests the prac- 

 tice of the European Cuckoo of carrying 

 its laid egg in bill to the nest of a nurse. 



"11. The American species occasionally 

 'e.xchange' eggs, or lay in other birds' 

 nests, and when so doing the Black-bill 

 has been known to struggle for possession 

 of the stolen nest. Since similar actions 

 have been repeatedly observed in one or 

 another degree, in numerous species in 

 which no suspicion of parasitism exists, 

 and in all parts of the world they must be 

 ascribed, in addition to the reasons given 

 above, not to 'stupidity or inadvertence,' 

 or to 'a tendency towards parasitism,' 

 but to temporary irregularities in the 

 rhythms of the reproductive cycle." 



Distribution .\nd Migr.\tiox of Shore- 

 birds. By Wells W. Cooke. Bulletin 

 No. 35, Biological Survey. 100 pages. 

 4 plates. 



To his valuable bulletins on the migra- 

 tion of Warblers, and of Ducks, Geese and 

 Swans, Professor Cooke now adds one on 



a group of birds remarkable for the length 

 of their semi-annual journeys. This 

 bulletin, like its predecessors, is based on 

 published records, on specimens, and on 

 data from the great corps of volunteer 

 observers who, for the past twenty-five 

 years, have been contributing their obser- 

 vations to the Biological Survey. Both 

 the ornithologist and the sportsman are 

 to be congratulated on the appearance of 

 a publication which places within their 

 reach such an unequaled series of author- 

 itative records in regard to the movements 

 of birds in which both are interested. — F. 

 M. C. 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The Auk. — Readers of the July number 

 will be well repaid for the perusal of H. W. 

 Henshaw's Migration of the Pacific Plover 

 to and from the Hawaiian Islands, which 

 is a most fascinating contribution to the 

 subject of bird migration. The fact that 

 the Pacific form of the Golden Plover finds 

 its way over 2,000 miles of trackless ocean, 

 twice in the year, is clearly established, 

 and at the same time the writer frankly 

 admits that all solutions of how and why 

 this migration is accomplished are purely 

 hypothetical. Sportsmen and others will 

 also be interested in J. C. Phillips' 'Notes 

 on the Autumn Migration of the Canada 

 Goose in Eastern Massachusetts.' 



The titles of several faunal lists are 

 'Summer and Fall Birds of the Hamlin 

 Lake Region, Michigan" by R. W. Chancy; 

 'Notes on the Birds of Pima Co., Arizona,' 

 by S. S. Visher; 'Notes on the Summer 

 Birds of Kentucky and Tennessee,' by 

 A. H. Howell; and 'Bird Photographing in 

 the Carolinas, with an Annotated List of 

 the Birds Observed,' by B. S. Bowdish and 

 P. B. Philip. The last is illustrated, but, 

 as a rule, these local faunal lists are not 

 inspiring. Then, too, there is a growing 

 tendency to include every bird seen or 

 heard, while the taking of specimens has 

 apparently become a secondary and 

 somewhat superfluous matter. It would 

 seem, for instance, as if an observer who 

 is in doubt about the indentification of a 

 Hudsonian Godwit, viewed at binocular 



