156 



Bird -Lore 



Mass. Two of these birds were females, 

 both mated to Golden-wing males, and 

 each raised a brood of young birds. One 

 brood of these young was composed en- 

 tirely of Brewster's Warblers. In the 

 other brood, all but probably one, were 

 Brewster's Warblers, and that one a 

 Golden-wing. The third, a male, was de- 

 feated in competition with a Golden-wing 

 for at least one of the Brewster's Warbler 

 females, and passed the summer unmated. 



Much of the zoological research of the 

 present day may be divided roughly, into 

 two classes. In the first, data gleaned 

 from nature in the field is correlated and 

 explained. In the second, artificial con- 

 ditions are brought to bear on some par- 

 ticular problem the investigator has in 

 tnind, a method most frequently met with 

 in university laboratories. Mr. Faxon, a 

 scientist trained in the first method, baf- 

 fled by the difi&culty of the problem he 

 is dealing with, appeals to the second 

 method for aid. If Golden-winged and 

 Blue-winged Warblers could be crossed, 

 and the succeeding generations bred in 

 an aviary, we should finally have definite 

 data to back up or disprove our theories! 

 It may be that not until this is done shall 

 we have the desired proof. It would in- 

 deed have been difficult to establish and 

 prove the laws of Mendelian inheritance 

 (which appear to be operative in these 

 Warblers) except by artificial animal 

 breeding. 



Yet if Brewster's and Lawrence's 

 Warblers truly are Mendelian derivatives 

 of the Golden-wing and Blue-wing, we 

 will get a certain light on the place of 

 Mendelian inheritance in nature and its 

 value in species formation from such 

 observations as Mr. Faxon records, 

 which no amount of artificial experiment 

 would yield. 



The paper would be more complete 

 prefaced with a clear statement of what 

 the Brewster's and Lawrence's War- 

 blers are, and how each differs from 

 the Golden-winged Warbler on the one 

 hand and the Blue-winged Warbler on 

 the other; but, after all, a person 

 unfamiliar with the birds can get such 



information from any good text-book 

 which deals with our Warblers. The 

 inconclusiveness of this paper but gives 

 us hope that it will be followed by others 

 containing the results of further obser- 

 vation, or of experiments such as Mr. 

 Faxon has suggested. 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The Auk. — The April number opens 

 with an announcement, by Mr. John E. 

 Thayer, of the discovery of the "Eggs of 

 the Spoonbill Sandpiper {Eurynorhyn- 

 chus pygmcBus)." A set of four was 

 obtained near Cape Serdze, in northeast- 

 ern Siberia, by Capt F. Kleinschmidt, 

 who also secured breeding birds and 

 downy young. The eggs and young are 

 figured in color, and it is of interest to 

 observe that the peculiar form of the bill 

 of the adult has developed in the young by 

 the time of hatching. It is to be regretted 

 that the account of so rare a species 

 should be so meager in outline. 



For a painstaking study of the "Nest 

 Life of the Screech Owl," Miss A. R. 

 Sherman's observations are to be com- 

 mended, and such papers are valuable 

 contributions to the life histories of birds. 

 In lighter vein is Mrs. F. M. Bailey's 

 sketch, "A Drop of Four Thousand Feet," 

 which, in spite of its blood-curdling title, 

 merely relates the incidents of a trip 

 down the mountains of New Mexico. 

 Under the caption "Concealing Color- 

 ation Again," Messrs. Thomas Barbour 

 and J. C. Phillips review at considerable 

 length Mr. A. H. Thayer's recent book, 

 and make mince-meat of some of the con- 

 tentions set forth in its pages. A review 

 of Tracey's "Significance of White Mark- 

 ings, etc.," at p. 278 of "The Auk," 

 should be read in this connection. 



A carefully prepared local list is that of 

 Mr. H. Lacey on "The Birds of Kerrville, 

 Texas, and Vicinity," also that of Mr. 

 A. W. Honeywill, Jr., entitled "Notes on 

 Some Summer and Fall Birds of the 

 Crooked Lake Region, Minnesota," in 

 both of which articles maps add to their 

 value. Again, however, attention may be 



