Book News and Reviews 



III 



the voyages and expeditions of Captain 

 Cook, La Perouse, Vancouver, Lewis and 

 Clarke, Major Long, Captain Wyeth and 

 Captain Beechey, and special reference to 

 tLe birds collected by Peale, Say, Town- 

 send, Nuttall, Bell and Heermann. 



Mrs. Bailey continues her description 

 of 'The Characteristic Birds of the Dakota 

 Prairies' with a charming account of the 

 water-birds found along the sloughs and 

 marshes. 



Jewett contributes a brief paper on 'New 

 and Interesting Bird Records,' concerning 

 thirteen species found in eastern Oregon 

 during the spring and summer of 1915. 



One of the first fruits of the recent pub- 

 lication of Grinnell's 'Distributional List 

 of the Birds of California,' appears in 

 Dawson's seven-page 'Personal Supple- 

 ment,' which contains notes and critical 

 comments on sixty-three species. If other 

 observers would publish such notes as 

 they have with equal detail, it would no 

 doubt result in a considerable addition to 

 the wealth of information on the distri- 

 bution of California birds which Dr. 

 Grinnell has already so successfully 

 brought together. 



The common names applied to several 

 birds come in for criticism in Notes from 

 Field and Study. Henderson defends the 

 term 'House Finch,' and condemns the 

 two synonyms by which the bird is often 

 known. The term 'Linnet' he considers 

 not distinctive and 'California Linnet' as 

 indefensible. Dawson proposes Auburn 

 Canyon Wren as a preferable name for the 

 Dotted Canyon Wren and Coues' Petrel 

 instead of Ashy Petrel for the bird which 

 'simply isn't ashy.' — T. S. P. 



The Auk. — Readers of the January 

 issue will find therein a good deal about 

 bird song as it is viewed from different 

 angles by several contributors. Mr. H. 

 Oldys discusses the 'Rhythmical Singing of 

 Veeries' from a musician's standpoint, 

 and Mr. A. A. Saunders, in a letter at 

 page 103, upholds the scientist's belief in 

 the use of a graphic method while, casu- 

 ally, in no less than three other articles, 

 the writers make use of conventional 



human syllables in an effort to express 

 bird-notes. After all, a person must hear 

 a bird-song to know anything about it, 

 and the crudest symbols, musical notes or 

 words that he may employ to awaken his 

 memory of the song mean more to him 

 than any system that has yet been in- 

 vented. It is his notation alone that will 

 arouse his memory, for the science of 

 musical sounds cannot go far in explaining 

 what his ear has never heard. Mr. H. J. 

 Fry offers 'A Study of the Seasonal Decline 

 of Bird Song,' painstaking so far as it goes, 

 but limited to a single season. 



Mr. F. C. Lincoln records 'The Dis- 

 covery of the Nest and Eggs of Leucosticte 

 australis,' the Brown-capped Rosy Finch, 

 in the Colorado mountains and shows us 

 a half-tone of the site and one of the nest 

 and eggs, the latter pure white. Messrs. 

 B. S. Bowdish and P. B. Philipp record 

 the finding of several nests of 'The Ten- 

 nessee Warbler in New Brunswick,' and 

 also show us half-tones of the rare nest 

 and eggs. 



A pleasing study of the courtship of 

 several species of ducks is presented by 

 Dr. C. W. Townsend, who uses binoculars 

 to good advantage, and Mr. J. C. Phillips 

 raises 'Two Problems in the Migration 01 

 Water Fowl,' one, regarding the occur- 

 rence of certain North American Ducks 

 in the Marshall Islands, the other dealing 

 with the behavior of Canada Geese when 

 migrating. 



Mr. W. A. Bryan declares that there is 

 'An Undescribed Species of Drepanidida 

 on Nihoa, Hawaiian Group,' but wisely 

 refrains from preliminarily tagging it with 

 a name (as has sometimes been done in 

 similar cases) because no specimens have 

 been obtained. Messrs. J. E. Thayer and 

 O. Bangs list 'A Collection of Birds from 

 Saghalin Island,' Mr. F. H. Allen describes 

 'A Nesting of the Rose-breasted Gros- 

 beak,' and Mr. H. Mousley contributes the 

 first part of 'Five Years' Personal Notes 

 and Observations on the Birds of Hatley, 

 Stanstead Co., Quebec, 1911-1915.' There 

 is much of interest in Mr. Mousley's well 

 annotated list which is to be continued. 

 -J. D. 



