Book Notes and Reviews 



87 



on the Early I-ife of Loon Chicks' is also 

 instructive. He watched a pair of young- 

 sters in the New York 'Zoo' and their 

 habits, taken in connection with observations 

 on other species, convince him that swim- 

 ming, feeding, flight, call-notes and other 

 phenomena are congenital instincts,— so 

 away goes the pretty fable of the fond 

 parents teaching their offspring to fly! 



Mr. F. M Chapman now tells us that 

 the Maryland Yellow-throat did not origi- 

 nally come from Maryland, bravely slaugh- 

 ters his Florida form, ignota, on the altar of 

 synonomy, and leaves us with two races east 

 of the Rockies, —theSouthern Yellow-throat, 

 tric/ias, and the Northern Yellow-throat, 

 brachiJactyla, for which conclusions let us 

 be profoundly thankful. 



A fresh batch of Audubon-Baird letters 

 are presented by Mr. R. Deane, and they 

 contain many bits of information concerning 

 birds and beasts of America as known fifty 

 years ago. 



There is a local list of the spring birds of 

 Tishomingo county. Miss., by A. Allison, 

 and one of those of Cobalt, Ontario, by F. C. 

 Hubel There is a strange lack in the 

 latter of several species that must have been 

 overlooked, and the form of Downy Wood- 

 pecker should be medianus, not ^^ pubescens." 



Mr. J. H. Fleming's accurate list of the 

 birds of Toronto is completed in the present 

 number. Two hundred and ninety species 

 and subspecies are recorded from a some- 

 what limited area. Among 'General Notes' 

 'A Migration Disaster in Western Ontario' 

 is worthy of special attention. Thousands of 

 birds were drowned in Lake Huron, over- 

 taken by the snow and cold of October 10, 

 1906. In closing, a review of the proceed- 

 ings of the Twenty -fourth Congress of the 

 A. O. U. may be noted, also an article by 

 Dr. J. A. Allen on the status of the Rio 

 Grande Seedeater. — J. D., Jr. 



The Condor. — Two numbers of 'The 

 Condor' have appeared since the last review 

 in Bird-Lore. The November number 

 opens with the first part of Finley's 'Life 

 History of the California Condor, ' illustrated 

 with photographs by Bohlman, which in- 

 clude some of the most remarkable pictures 



of birds ever taken with a camera. The 

 author has made a wonderful addition to our 

 knowledge of the nesting habits and devel- 

 opment of the young of this rapidly disap- 

 pearing bird. Four other papers on habits 

 of western birds also deserve mention. These 

 are Bowles' account of 'The Kennicott 

 Screech Owl' ; Sharp's description of 'Nest- 

 ing of the Red-bellied Hawk' in San Diego 

 county, California ; Miss Head's 'Observa- 

 tions of the Notes and Ways of Two Western 

 Vireos' and Willett's note on 'The Southern 

 California Clapper Rail Breeding on Fresh 

 Water.' The editor reviews the status of 

 the Hutton Vireo, recognizing three forms: 

 Fireo huttoni, which is common west of the 

 Sierras; V. h. oberlinlseri in San Diego 

 county, and V. mailliardorum on Santa 

 Cruz Island. An editorial on 'Better Ver- 

 nacular Names' suggests a number of 

 changes chiefly in the interests of utility, 

 uniformity, and the substitution of English 

 names now in common use for the 'book 

 names' now applied to several species in the 

 A. O. U. check list. 



In the January number, the two leading 

 articles are on the habits of the Magpie in 

 Colorado. The first is by Warren, on 'Photo- 

 graphing Magpies,' and the other by Gil- 

 man, on 'Magpies on the La Plata.' Finley 

 contributes an account of his work 'Among 

 the Gulls on Klamath Lake,' in Southern 

 Oregon in 1905. A good illustration of the 

 opportunities for original observations even 

 in localities supposed to be well known is 

 given in Carriger and Pemberton's 'Nesting 

 of the Pine Siskin in California.' In 1903 

 and 1904 the authors examined some 25 sets 

 of eggs of this species in San Mateo and 

 San Francisco counties. In view of the fact 

 that this section has been the collecting 

 ground of ornithologists for forty years or 

 more, and was supposed to be as well-known 

 as any part of the state, the record is as re- 

 markable as it is interesting. Among the 

 shorter notes is a record of the nesting of the 

 English Sparrow at Newhall, Los Angeles 

 county. May 19, 1906. This record marks 

 the lirst entrance of the bird into southern 

 California and indicates a decided advance 

 in the distribution of the species in the 

 Southwest.— T. S. P. 



