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Supplement to the Birds of Essex 

 County, ^Massachusetts. By Charles 

 Wendell Townsend, M.D. ^Memoirs 

 of the Xuttall Ornithological Club, 

 No. V. Cambridge, ]\Iass., Aug., 1920. 

 196 pages; one plate and one map. 



It is significant of the ever-increasing 

 interest taken in ornithology that nearly 

 200 pages are required to cover the in- 

 formation acquired in the fifteen years 

 which have elapsed since the publication 

 of Dr. Townsend's 'Birds of Essex County.' 

 With a large number of junior amateurs 

 as competitors, Dr. Townsend has con- 

 tinued active field work and is still the 

 leading authority of his locality, able to 

 judge and weigh the value of the numerous 

 sight records. The result is one of the most 

 convincing and valuable reports on a local 

 area which has appeared since sight rec- 

 ords have enormously outnumbered those 

 based on specimens taken. There is a 

 most interesting preliminary chapter on 

 'Changes in the Bird-Life of Essex County 

 since 1905,' a second, containing censuses 

 of nesting birds and migrating Warblers 

 in various restricted areas, and the bird- 

 life of several ponds; while the third 

 chapter presents the more noteworthy 

 migration dates, records of occurrence of 

 the rarer species, etc., of the past fifteen 

 years. An excellent feature of the book is 

 a brief recapitulation of the status of every 

 species, even when no additional informa- 

 tion has been obtained. The author's 

 wide field experience is evidenced by many 

 pertinent and interesting comments on 

 life-history and field characteristics writ- 

 ten in his usual easy and simple style. 

 With all sight records of rare species, 

 even unusual or extreme dates, the obser- 

 vation is given with as much detail as 

 necessary and full credit is given to the 

 observer. Many amateurs would do well 

 to note that no observations are given in 

 greater detail than those of Dr. Townsend 

 himself, in spite of the fact that in years, 

 knowledge, and e.xperience, he outranks 

 every other student in the county, and 



that his mere word would carry much 

 more weight than theirs. — -L. G. 



Bulletin of the Essex County Orni- 

 thological Club, Vol II, No i, 

 Dec, 1920. Salem, Mass. 54 pages; two 

 plates. 



This second number of the Bulletin 

 shows that the Essex County Ornitho- 

 logical Club has fully lived up to the 

 promise of its first year. The record of its 

 regular meetings shows an average attend- 

 ance of over twenty, an e.xample which far 

 older organizations might well envy. 

 'Notes on the Lincoln Sparrow,' by E. H. 

 Forbush; 'At a Food-Shelf,' by Albert P. 

 ]Morse; 'Variations in the Song of the 

 Whip-poor-will,' by Rodman .\. Nichols; 

 'Notes on the Ip5\vich Sparrow,' by C. J. 

 Maynard; 'Imitative Construction of Birds' 

 Nests,' by Edmund S. Morse; 'Notes on 

 Bird Nests,' by Walter E. Bates; 'On the 

 Nesting, Song and Play of the Tree 

 Swallow and Barn Swallow,' by C. W. 

 Townsend, M.D.; 'The White Gulls at 

 Swampscott,' by Arthur P. Stubbs, are all 

 pleasantly written, informative, or inter- 

 esting papers. — L.G. 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The .\uk. — A leading article in the 

 January Auk is 'The Dickcissel {Spiza 

 americana) of the Illinois Prairies,' by 

 Alfred O. Gross. We have here the first 

 part of a detailed study of this interesting 

 bird which has completely disappeared 

 from eastern localities where it formerly 

 bred, but is abundant farther west, 

 apparently increasingly so in places. The 

 Dickcissel is "preeminently a bird of the 

 meadows, where, for the state (of Illinois) 

 as a whole, its concentration is 81.2 birds 

 to the square mile." The dense low vege- 

 tation of this type of land provides it with 

 congenial nesting-sites. Fence-posts, tele- 

 phone wires, etc., adjacent to the nest are 

 favorite singing stations for the male bird. 

 From here he delivers his short unmusical 



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