Book News and Reviews 



261 



plea for that "conscientious and exhaustive 

 study of the many groups of birds and 

 mammals, in their own native haunts, 

 under natural conditions," on which 

 all theories concerning the significance 

 of coloration should be based. — F. M. C. 



The Evening Grosbeak ix Minnesota. 

 By Thomas S. Roberts. Bull. Minn. 

 Acad. Sci. IV, No. 3, 1910, pp. 406-414. 



Dr. Roberts gives us here a model for 

 what may be termed a bird's State 

 Biography. Nearly a page and a half is 

 devoted to references covering the 

 records of the bird's occurrence in Min- 

 nesota, and these records are so annotated 

 that the nature of the articles to which 

 they refer is made clear. Then follows a 

 detailed description of plumages (pre- 

 pared by Mrs. F. W. Commons), and 

 paragraphs on 'General Range,' 

 'Minnesota Range,' and '^Migration 

 Dates,' the latter under 'Fall" and 

 'Spring.' 



After this preliminary matter, we have 

 some five and a half pages of biographical 

 matter relating in the main to the bird's 

 habits while in Minnesota, but including 

 also a description of its nest and eggs, 

 and some data of historical interest. 



The paper obviously contains all the 

 available information in regard to the 

 Evening Grosbeak as a Minnesota bird, 

 and the more important facts of its gen- 

 eral life-history. We are assured that 

 every bird student who reads it will 

 share our hope that its author may find 

 time to treat the remaining birds of 

 Minnesota in the same admirable and 

 thorough manner. — F. M. C. 



Nature Sketches in Temperate Amer- 

 ica. A Series of Sketches and a Popular 

 Account of Insects, Birds and Plants 

 Treated from Some Aspects of Their 

 Evolution and Ecological Relations. By 

 Joseph Lane Hancock. With 215 illus- 

 trations in the text and 12 colored plates 

 by the authors. 8vo.. 451 pp. A. C. 

 McClurg & Co., Chicago, 191 1. 



This attractive volume contains a 

 store of information arranged in a man- 

 ner which is at once interesting and in- 

 structive. While it deals mainly with 



insects (birds occupying a compara- 

 tively small part of the text), it uses them 

 to illustrate, or discuss such fundamental 

 subjects as evolution and natural selec- 

 tion, adaptation, protective resem- 

 blance, warning colors, sources of life 

 after the glacial period, relations existing 

 between an animal and its environment, 

 etc., which possess an interest for all 

 naturalists, whatev'er be the especial 

 group of animals to which they are de- 

 voted. 



The book should also appeal to the 

 general reader who, while he may be 

 repelled by the form in which technically 

 scientific papers are presented, is still too 

 discriminating to read with satisfaction 

 the host of so-called nature-books and 

 alleged animal biographies which of 

 recent j^ears have flourished on our lately 

 awakened interest in life out-of-doors. 



We commend Dr. Hancock's volume 

 as eminently worth while. — F. M. C. 



Birds of C.\lifornia in Relation to the 

 Fruit Industry. Part 2. By F. E. 

 L. Beal. Bull. No. 34, Biological Sur- 

 vey, Washington, D. C. 96 pages, 6 

 colored plates, by L. A. Fuertes. 



Part I of this report was published in 

 1907, and treated of the food of thirty- 

 eight species of California birds. In the 

 present and concluding part, the economic 

 states of thirty-two additional species is 

 discussed. 



Professor Beal remarks "all the birds 

 whose food habits are discussed have 

 direct relations with husbandry," and it 

 is a matter of the first importance that 

 this relation be ascertained bj' a qualified 

 expert from a comprehensive view of all 

 the facts involved. 



Four species, the Linnet or House Finch, 

 California Jay, Steller's Jay and the Red- 

 breasted Sapsucker, are regarded as of 

 doubtful utilit}-, "but," Professor Beal 

 adds, "the more the food habits of birds 

 are studied the more evident is the fact 

 that, with a normal distribution of species 

 and a fair supply of natural food, the 

 damage to agricultural products by birds 

 is small compared with the benefit. 



"A reasonable way of viewing the rela- 



