Book News and Reviews 



S3 



There are several faunal papers. T. 

 Gilbert Pearson in 'Notes on the Bird-Life 

 of Southeastern Texas,' presents personal 

 observations on the numbers and habits of 

 the more interesting species of this region, 

 made on a field-trip the last of May and be- 

 ginning of June. Among the birds recorded 

 are the White Pelican nesting in Laguna de 

 la Madre, the Roseate Spoonbill, Reddish 

 Egret, Chachalaca, White-winged Dove and 

 Great-tailed Grackle. Two plates are from 

 photographs of the nesting of the Brown and 

 White Pelicans, Reddish Egret, Cabot's and 

 Caspian Terns. 



'Breeding Birds of Warland, Lincoln Co., 

 Montana,' by Thomas D. Burleigh, com- 

 prises notes made in the summer of 1920, and 

 lists 79 species. Warland is a remote lumber 

 town, where Ruffed Grouse and Pileated 

 Woodpecker, unused to man, are remarkably 

 tame. To quote from 'Some Southern Michi- 

 gan Bird Records' by Norman A. Wood, 

 "The records in the Museum of Zoology, 

 University of Michigan, apparently indicate 

 that several species of birds are in Michigan 

 extending their ranges to the northward, or 

 are becoming more common." Barn Owl, 

 Grasshopper, Henslow's and Lark Sparrows, 

 Prothonotary and Connecticut Warblers, 

 Short-billed Marsh Wren, and Tufted Tit- 

 mouse are mentioned, and the available data 

 given. Unpublished records of other rare 

 birds are included in this paper. 'Notes from 

 Connecticut,' by Louis B. Bishop, M. D., 

 contains critical migration and other data 

 on some 66 species and subspecies supple- 

 mentary to 'The Birds of Connecticut,' pub- 

 lished in 1913. 



'The Later Flights of the Passenger 

 Pigeon' by Frank Bond, is a short paper of 

 much interest, a memory sketch from eastern 

 Iowa of the vanishing hordes of this species 

 (half-tone plate). They flew in long lines or 

 bands, extending laterally to their line of 

 flight. Leverett M. Loomis records the be- 

 lief that Albatrosses and Petrels find their 

 way on their extensive wanderings by fol- 

 lowing shore-lines, ocean currents, and winds, 

 not by special sense of direction. He has 

 made several observations on the behavior 

 of such birds off the California coast which 

 would lead to this conclusion. It is also 



borne out by facts in the distribution of 

 birds of this group. 'The Abbreviated Inner 

 Primaries of Nestling Woodpeckers,' by 

 James P. Chapin, illustrated with a half- 

 tone plate and several text figures, is a pri- 

 marily anatomical discussion from a philo- 

 sophic viewpoint. 'The Feeding Habits of 

 the Black Skimmer,' by Stanley Clisby 

 Arthur, is illustrated with two plates, 

 from four photographs. The author has 

 "never seen a Skimmer secure its fish food 

 while skimming the waters with its under 

 mandible immersed. He has, on the other 

 hand, seen them pick up small fish, evidently 

 chased into a shallow flat by larger ones. The 

 Skimmers meanwhile were standing in the 

 shallow water, and so photographed. He 

 concludes that the Black Skimmer does not 

 secure its food in the way generally set forth, 

 and that the function of the peculiar bill is 

 unknown. This is an interesting paper but it 

 is hard to prove a negative in the face of 

 rather convincing affirmative evidence. It 

 also does not seem likely that a bird could 

 gain a living by simply picking up such active 

 fishes as silversides, for instance (here men- 

 tioned). A taxonomic paper by Nagamichi 

 Kuroda describes several new races of 

 Japanese and Korean Woodpeckers. 



'General Notes' contain a variety of items, 

 mostly of faunal interest. Aaron C. Bagg 

 speaks of 'An Oil-soaked Loon at Watch 

 Hill, R. I.' and suggests "a rigid federal law 

 relative to the disposal of waste oil at sea." 

 Witmer Stone supplements Arthur's article 

 on the Skimmer with an observation of its 

 capturing a fish while flying low over the 

 water. "It was not 'ploughing the main' at 

 the time, and it would seem as if the peculiar 

 bill must have been a hindrance to its success 

 rather than an aid." Ralph Hoffman de- 

 scribes 'A Mating Performance of the Least 

 Tern' in California. It is to be wished that 

 more details had been supplied by Charles 

 A. Urner with the statement that "At 

 least two Greater Yellow- legs remained 

 here [Elizabeth, N. J.] throughout the breed- 

 ing season [ 1 9 2 1 ]. " The Greater Yellow- legs 

 is almost regularly present in this latitude 

 in summer as a coastwise transient, except 

 the last week in June, a short but definite 

 hiatus, invariable, or nearly so. — J. T. N. 



