Book News and Reviews 



2SI 



rannc should I'illuT use ;i j^uu or omit t lu' 

 record. 



The neslinj; of 'I'he Hhu k tliroaled 

 Green \\';irl)ler' is i)leas:inlly destribed 

 by Cordelia J. Slanwood. and excelienl 

 photographs of the nest are shown — mis- 

 placed in binding — at page 304. We note 

 that 'Hcnlow's Sj^arrow as an Ohio Bird,' 

 by W. I'". Henniujier, is acrom|)anii'(l by a 

 pholograjjh of a doubtfully 'aul henlii' 

 nest, and it smacks unpleasantly of 

 modern commercialism to read that 

 'republication in any other work will be 

 strictly dealt with according to law.' Is 

 the independent spirit of scientific 

 ornithology so dead that "The .Vuk' meekly 

 accepts and publishes such slulT. The 

 reviewer may also be pardoned for express- 

 ing his belief that the 'Resurrection of the 

 Red-legged Black Duck.' by William 

 Brewster, while amusingly written, fails 

 to establish any new facts, and we have 

 already had the old ones before us for a 

 long time. 



General notes and rexiews are numerous 

 and instructive. Some of us will be sur- 

 prised to learn of the abundance of the 

 Blue Goose {Chen ccenilescois) in Lou- 

 isiana, as recorded by W. L. Mc.\tee, who 

 saw them in thousands. 



In the October number of The Auk we 

 can, figuratively speaking, put on our hats 

 and go out into the open air to study birds 

 at close range. We may go at daylight, 

 with Mrs. F. M. Bailey, to arid \ew 

 Mexico, and enjoy to the full the 'Wild 

 Life of an Alkaline Lake,' without quaking 

 with cold in the blind of boughs, while 

 hordes of water-fowl sweep through the 

 air or splash about in the water; or we ma_\- 

 w'atch, in the deep woods, with Mr. N*. 

 McClintock, the home life of the family 

 of birds of which he made 'A Hermit 

 Thrush Study.' and see the youngsters 

 grow apace; or, with Miss C. J. Stanwood, 

 we may examine, from day to day, the 

 occupants of 'A Series of Nests of the Mag- 

 nolia Warbler'; or, in the winter months, 

 we may prefer to look through our glasses, 



with .Mrs. H. W. W right, upon 'Some Rare 

 Wild l)u( ks Wintering at Boston, Mass., 

 igog-iqio." .Vll of these articles show 

 careful observation, and supply much 

 information concerning the life-histories 

 of numerous species; and still another bit 

 is furnished by Miss J. W. Sherman, who 

 tells of nests and young of 'The Brewster's 

 Wari)kr in Massachusetts.' 



It is a pity to be obliged to pass over 

 these delightful papers with such brief 

 mention, for they show a rare blending of 

 popular and scientific ornithology. Many 

 readers ma\' not know that the writer of 

 the article on the Magnolia Warbler lives 

 in Maine; there is no other clue gi\en as 

 to where the nests were found. 



'Some Early Records of the Passenger 

 Pigeon' is the title of a paper by Mr. A. H. 

 Wright, who modestly states that they 

 were "gathered as a by-product." We 

 wish they had been quoted more often 

 from original editions. Mr. A. H. Norton 

 briefly records 'The Little Gull (Larus 

 minutiis Pall.) in Maine, with Remarks on 

 its Distribution and its Occurrence in 

 America.' This straggler from the Old 

 World has been captured five times in the 

 New. Mr. S. P. Fay writes on 'The 

 Canvasback in Massachusetts.' where he 

 thinks it is increasing in numbers; and 

 Mr. A. H. Howell contributes 'Notes on 

 the Birds of the Sunken Lands of South- 

 eastern Missouii.' 



No less than ten corrections of records 

 are made in the '(jeneral Notes' depart- 

 ment. "A little knowledge is a dangerous 

 thing," especially when we use opera- 

 glasses. .\mong the reviews is one of the 

 new A. O. U. Check-List of North 

 American birds, the first complete enumer- 

 ation since 1895, and the list is therefore a 

 noteworthy landmark of faunal progress. 

 There are also obituary notices of H. H. 

 Giglioli and of W. E. D. Scott, the former, 

 one of Italy's prominent zoologists, the 

 latter better known to most of us for his 

 field work in man\- parts of our count r v. 

 -J. 1).. Jr. 



