Book News and Reviews 



299 



now increasing in numbers year by year, 

 a fact seemingly to be explained only by 

 a westward extension in its general 

 distribution. There is the concluding 

 part of Wetmore's observation on the 

 habits of birds at Lake Burford, New 

 Mexico; 'Ontario Bird Notes,' byFleming 

 and Lloyd, a faunal paper; a technical 

 discussion of the structure, relationships, 

 and nomenclature of the group of King- 

 fishers to which our Belted Kingfisher 

 belongs, by W. DeW. Miller, and a 

 seventh supplement to the A. O. U. Check- 

 List. 



Among 'General Notes' we find mention 

 of the Evening Grosbeak having extended 

 its flight into New Jersey the past winter 

 and the Bohemian Waxwing at Rochester, 

 N. V. S. F. Rathbun gives interesting 

 sketches of the habits of the Waxwing 

 during a winter visitation at Seattle. An 

 unusually extensive northward spring 

 movement of the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 

 is evidenced in the record of individuals 

 from Boston and from Quebec. — J. T. N. 



The Condor. — The March and May 

 numbers of The Condor contain, in addition 

 to two continued articles, interesting 

 accounts of the nesting habits of several 

 western birds. The opening article in the 

 March number on 'The Nesting Habits of 

 the Alaskan Wren,' by Prof. Harold Heath 

 is based mainly on his observations on St. 

 George Island in Bering Sea in the summer 

 of 1018, when the birds were unusually 

 numerous. This diminutive Wren has one 

 of its principal breeding-grounds on St. 

 George Island and is subject to consider- 

 able fluctuations in its numbers. As 

 many as forty pairs have been noted in 

 some years, while in the severe winter of 

 1 919 only a single pair was observed. How 

 the bird maintains its precarious existence 

 under such conditions on a three by eight- 

 mile rock in Bering Sea is not less interest- 

 ing than the manner in which it keeps its 

 nest dry in damp or dripping crevices of 

 rocks. Almost the opposite conditions are 

 described by Van Rossem and Bowles in 

 the 'Nesting of the Dusky Poor- Will near 

 Saugus, Los Angeles Co., Calif.' on the 



bare ground on the side of a canon under 

 the shade of wild lilac and white sage 

 bushes. Bryant's Marsh Sparrow, which 

 has been supposed to be confined to the 

 salt marshes along the coast of California, 

 has been found by the Mailliards on hills 

 400 feet high and on Black's Mountain 

 1,140 feet in elevation and four miles from 

 the salt marshes of Tomales Bay. 



Henshaw's 'Autobiography' refers to 

 the early days of the American Ornitholo- 

 gists' Union and his meeting with several 

 California ornithologists. Among the 

 brief notes M. P. Skinner records the 

 nesting of the almost extinct Trumpeter 

 Swan in the Yellowstone National Park 

 in 1919. 



The May number opens with an inter- 

 esting account of 'The Home Life of the 

 Western Warbling Vireo' in Idaho, by 

 H. J. Rust, illustrated with eleven photo- 

 graphs. The male bird not only takes part 

 in incubation but sings while actually 

 sitting on the eggs. Under the title 'The 

 Existence of Sea-Birds a Relatively Safe 

 One,' Grinnell shows that sea-birds are 

 exposed to few dangers in comparison with 

 land-birds and registers a protest against 

 the practice of basing local records of rare 

 birds on specimens found on 'he beach, as 

 such specimens may have be?n carried by 

 winds or waves hundred r of miles from 

 where the bird actually died. 



Mrs. Bailey's 'Return to the Dakota 

 Lake Region' is concluded with notes 

 made in August and September just prior 

 to the autumn migration of the water- 

 fowl and Henshaw's 'Autobiographical 

 Notes' are concluded with his visit to the 

 Hawaiian Islands and his connection with 

 the Biological Survey, thus bringing the 

 record down to December 1, 1916. In 

 the Editorial Notes is an announcement 

 of the acquisition of the Grinnell collection 

 of birds by the Museum of Vertebrate 

 Zoology which now has a total of 40,438 

 specimens in its ornithological collection. 

 The 'Annual Directory,' with which the 

 number concludes, shows that the Cooper 

 Ornithological Club now has a member- 

 ship of 655, a gain of 55 over the number 

 in any previous year. — T. S. P. 



