so 



Bird- Lore 



tude of Colonel Roosevelt toward his 

 associates to the leaders of expeditions 

 lemembered mainh- for the personal 

 enmities they have aroused. 



It was not to he expeclcd that on a 

 /.ooiogical reconnaissance of this kind 

 material additions could be made to our 

 knowledge of the habits of the animals 

 encountered. Nor did Colonel Roosevelt 

 have suflicient previous knowledge of the 

 llora and fauna of the region traversed to 

 enable him to discuss its really significant 

 characteristics. What he gives us is a 

 series of clear-cut impressions of the wholly 

 strange scenes and forms of life encoun- 

 tered. Comparison with familiar North 

 American species makes, for North Ameri- 

 can readers at least, his descriptions 

 doubly pleasing. 



It must not be forgotten that George 

 K. Cherrie and Leo E. Miller, whom 

 Colonel Roosevelt took with him as repre- 

 sentatives of the American Museum, col- 

 lected some three thousand specimens of 

 birds and mammals, which constitute a 

 series of definite data on the faunal 

 atiinities of the region whence they come. 

 Viewed from a zoloogical standpoint 

 alone, the gathering of this material was 

 in itself no small achievement. Many 

 expeditions have been longer afield with 

 less to show. Here, however, we have not 

 only a valuable, representative collection 

 but we have also an important addition 

 to the narratives of exploration in South 

 America. The moral is, that while not every 

 zoological collector may hope to have 

 Colonel Roosevelt's powers of observa- 

 tion and description, he may at least make 

 a larger contribution to our knowledge of 

 the country in which he works than is to 

 be found on the labels of his specimens. — 

 F. M. C. 



Handbook of Birds of the Western 

 United States. By Florence 

 Merriam Bailey. With thirty-three 

 mil-page plates Ijy Louis Agassiz Fuertes. 

 and over six hundred cuts in the text. 

 Fourth edition. Revised. Houghton, 

 Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York. 

 1914. i2mo. li+570 pages. 



The body of the fourth edition of this 

 standard work is printed from the same 



plates as preceding editions, but contains 

 as ".\ddenda" (pp. 486-544J changes in 

 classification and nomenclature, a list, 

 with descriptions, of species to be added 

 and one of species to be eliminated; a list 

 of the birds of the area covered by the 

 work from the \. (). U. 'Check-List' 

 with corrected ranges, titles of various 

 works which have appeared since 1902, 

 when the first edition of the 'Handbook' 

 was published. 



While it would, of course, be more con- 

 venient to have this additional matter 

 appear in connection with the text 

 which it supplements, a short time spent 

 in cross-referencing will make it readily 

 available. As a matter of fact, the changes 

 are not sufficient to warrant reprinting the 

 book, which by their inclusion is now 

 brought up to date. — F. M. C. 



Report of Chief of I^ureau of Biolog- 

 ical Survey. 



This synopsis of the work of the liiolog- 

 ical Survey for the year ending June 30, 

 1914, shows the wide scope and importance 

 of the activities of this branch of Govern- 

 ment service. Increase of population 

 inevitably makes more severe the con- 

 llict between man and his environment, 

 and all the greater, therefore, is our need 

 of information as to the best way to 

 conduct ourselves. 



The problems of 'Prairie Dogs in 

 National Forests,' 'Burrowing Rodents 

 on Reclamation Projects,' 'Rodents as 

 Enemies of Reforestation,' 'Relations of 

 Birds to the Boll Weevil,' to quote from 

 subject headings in this Report, did not 

 concern our ancestors. But they, and 

 many like them, are of vital importance to 

 us, and it is fortunate that we have a 

 'Bureau' to which we may look for infor- 

 mation and advice as these and allied 

 difficulties arise. Among investigations 

 relative to birds which have been con- 

 ducted by the Survey during the year 

 mentioned are studies of the food of wild 

 Ducks, of the relations of birds to the 

 alfalfa and the boll weevils, and the range 

 caterpillar, of the economic status of the 

 European Starling, which it is recom- 



