iSoofe J^eto0 ant) 3^etoietD0 



Gilbert White of Selborxe. A lecture 

 by W. H. Mullens. London. Witherby 

 & Co., 326 High Holborn. 1907. 8vo. 

 32 pages, 7 plates. Price 2s. 6d., net. 



Every American nature-lover who visits 

 England without making a pilgrimage to 

 Selborne fails in his duty to Gilbert 

 White's memory and to himself. The 

 reasons why one should gladly pay his 

 tribute to White are obvious; but, if this 

 father of local naturalists had not made 

 his own little world famous, it would still 

 be well worth seeing for its own sake, and 

 particularly for the opportunities it offers 

 to the stranger to become acquainted 

 with the commoner English birds. But, 

 whether or not one can enjoy the charm 

 of Selborne's pastoral beauty and its 

 vivifying influence on his impressions of 

 White, Mr. Mullens' treatise is well worth 

 having for the information it contains of 

 White, of Selborne, and of the classic 

 'Natural History and Antiquities.' — F. 

 M. C. 



Birds of C.aliforni.x ix Rel.\tiox to 

 THE Fruit Industry. Part 1. By F. 

 E. L. Beal. Bulletin No. 30, Biologi- 

 cal Survey. 8vo. 100 pages, 5 plates. 



Professor Beal has passed three fruit 

 seasons in California, gathering the 

 material on which this important paper 

 is based. The comparative scarcity of 

 wild fruits in the regions devoted to 

 orchards, together with the fact that 

 orchards developed by irrigation prove 

 attractive oases for many species of 

 frugivorous birds, has made the destruc- 

 tion of fruit by birds a more serious 

 question in the West than it is in the 

 East. 



Professor Beal presents at length the 

 evidence he has secured by observation 

 in the field, and by analyses of stomach 

 contents, and concludes that only the 

 House Finch or Einnet is sufficiently 

 destructive to fruit to warrant a reduction 

 in its numbers. Other species may appear 

 to be harmful, but a record of their food, at 

 all seasons, shows a balance in their favor. 



None of those, he says, most directly 

 concerned "advocated measures for the 

 extermination, or even the material de- 

 crease, of birds." "We can't get along 

 without the birds" was a sentiment voiced 

 by many and endorsed by all. 



List of birds living ix the New York 

 Zoological P.ark, December 31, 1906. 

 Reprinted from the Eleventh Annual 

 Report of the New York Zoological 

 Society. 20 pages. 



In an editorial footnote to this publi- 

 cation, we are informed that "'in the great 

 majority of cases the Society holds that 

 the publication of lengthy lists of names 

 is uninteresting to the public and therefore 

 undesirable." An exception, however, has 

 been made in the present case, '"partly on 

 account of the universal interest in living 

 birds, and also because of our need of a 

 printed check-list of our bird collection. " 



Without pausing to inquire why lists 

 of the mammals and reptiles living in the 

 park would not also be both interesting 

 and useful, we are sure that aviculturists, 

 artists and bird students in general will 

 welcome this statement of the splendid 

 collection of birds which Mr. Beebe, the 

 Society's Curator, has brought together.^ 

 F. M. C. 



Geographic Wariatkjx ix Bird.> With 

 Especial Referexce to the Effects 

 OF Humidity. By C. William Beebe, 

 Curator of Birds. Zoologica, Yol. i, No. 

 I. 8vo., 41 pages, 5 half-tone plates. 

 Published by the New York Zoological 

 Society. 



Zoological parks are so often con- 

 sidered mere menageries for the exhibi- 

 tion of living animals that we always 

 think with satisfaction of Mr. Beebe's 

 admirable work with the birds of the New 

 York Zoological Society. As Mr. Beebe 

 remarks, "It has long been known that 

 many mammals, birds and reptiles, in- 

 habiting a moist, humid region show a 

 much darker or increased pigmentation 

 of the hair, feathers or scales than indi- 

 viduals from drier localities." Mr. Beebe, 



(84; 



