THE OSPREY. 



91 



The Schaller (Iowa) Audubon Society have lately 

 contributed to bird-protection literature a leaflet 

 with the little poem, 'A Kobin Pie.' The author, 

 Miss lone G. Daniels, lends interest to the lines by 

 telling the circumstances which led to its writing. 

 We understand that the Schaller Society is the only 

 Audubon Society in Iowa, but we trust it will be in- 

 strumental in organizing others in various parts of 

 the State. Miss J E. Hamand is Secretary of the 

 Society. 



We have advance pages of the fifth edition of 

 'Nests and Eggs of North American Birds' by Oliver 

 Davie. They show a revision of the work that has 

 brought it thoroughly up to date. The past usefulness 

 of the work to oologists will doubtless give this new 

 edition a good sale. 



Mr. J. Warren Jacobs of Waynesburg, Pa., sends 

 two photographs showing sets of eggs containing 

 abnormal specimens. They will appear in a forth- 

 coming pamphlet, ' Oological Abnormalities, ' which is 

 written and published by Mr. Jacobs. 



Mr. O. W. Howard will spend most of the spring 

 and summer in either the Huachuca or Chiricahuca 

 Mountains. During the winter he has held a position 

 at the copper mines of Bisbee, Arizona. 



Recent Literature. 



Birdcraft. A field book of two hundred song, 

 game and water birds. By Mabel Osgood Wright. 

 With eight full-page plates by Louis Agassiz Fuer- 

 TES. New York : The Macmillan Company, 1897. 

 Cloth $2.50. 



A new edition of Birdcraft' comes with the very 

 poor colored plates of the former editions replaced 

 with life-like black and white drawings, the work of 

 Louis Agassiz Fuertes. These are mostly the same 

 pictures that illustrate Mrs. Wright's and Dr. Coues' 

 'Citizen Bird,' but are reproduced on a somewhat 

 larger scale, which adds to rather than detracts from 

 their presentation. One of the drawings, that of the 

 Veery or Wilson's Thrush, is lithographed in colors, 

 making a beautiful frontispiece. Mrs Wright keenly 

 alive to her subject, precedes the picture of the 

 Veery with a few lines on this bird by Henry Van Dyke, 

 reproduced on a fly leaf in the original manuscript. 

 This gives a pleasing quaintness to the picture of the 

 Veery ; but it is just an after thought : throughout 

 the book Mrs Wright tells us a charming story of 

 the birds, and makes it interesting to the casual 

 reader who will lend an ear to a story of nature ; she 

 gains new friends for the birds, for he who reads 



Birdcraft' becomes a student and lover of birds 



On opening the book there is first a preliminary 

 talk "To the Reader, " which is followed by chapters 

 introducing general bird-life ; commencing with an 

 early spring day when the "trees are leafless, and 

 there are snow patches in nooks and corners ; the air 

 is laden with chilly gusts, but at noon a little softness 

 creeps into it ; the days, though gray, hold twelve 

 hours of light, the vernal equinox is at hand. 

 Listen ! on the branch of the oak where the leaves 

 still cling is the bugler, the Song Sparrow, calling 

 through the silence, 'They come ! They come ! They 

 come ! Prepare the way,' " and the author goes on to 

 tell us of the coming of the birds The ' Building of 

 the Nest' furnishes a title for another chapter of 

 bird-lore; the 'Water Birds' are spoken of as a class 

 of birds distinctly apart from the other birds ; their 

 "very remoteness gives them a charm. . . . They 

 have another claim upon your attention ; vou may 



study them in autumn and winter, and they fill 

 many gaps in the bird year by their presence at sea- 

 sons when the land birds are few." The bird calen- 

 dar is finished with a chapter on the ' Birds of 

 Autumn and Winter.' Following these introductory 

 chapters the author tells How to Name the Birds' 

 by their general characteristics, and besides tells 

 other things of interest to the student After this a 

 'Synopsis of Bird Families is taken up, and then 

 the biographies of two hundred more common species ; 

 preceded in each case by a scientific description. 

 These biographies form the body of the volume ; they 

 are from a dozen lines to several pages each in length, 

 and are delightful introductions to the species. On 

 the last page is the ever-valuable 'key' and the in- 

 dices of the English and of the Latin names.- W A. J . 



Di'scriptioiis of Ne7v Hirds from lliu 7'rr.s Marias 

 Islands, IVrstcni Mi\\i<o. By E. W. Nelson. Pro- 

 ceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 

 Vol. XII, pp. 5- II. Jan. 27, i8y8. 



The result of Mr. Nelson's extended work in 

 Mexico will be given in detail in a paper now in the 

 course of preparation. The present paper describes 

 eleven new species from the Tres Marias Islands. 

 He gives the name Tres Marias' to a Pigeon, a 

 Dove, a Red-tailed Hawk, a Caracara, a Parauque, 

 a Cardinal, a Vireo, and names the Tres Marias Blue 

 Mockingbird, the Magdalena Island Wren, the Little 

 Green Flycatcher, and the Cioldman's Trogan, the 

 latter in honor of Mr. E. A. Goldman, his assistant. 

 — W. A. J. 



General Notes. 



VARIATION OF NEST MATERIAL. 

 I was some surprised to note the difference in com- 

 position of two nests built by the same pair of House 

 Wrens this last season. Both were built in paste- 

 board oatmeal boxes placed under the roof of a porch. 

 The first nest was composed of twigs and abundance 

 of spider webs and cocoons ; the deep hollow being 

 lined with grass blades. The later nest was made 

 of leaves, grasses, and weed stems, being lined with 

 poultry feathers and horse hair. — C. Pipek Smith, 

 Anderson, Ind. 



A RARE BIRD IN RHODE ISLAND. 



On July 16, 1897, there was shot at Woonsocket, 

 R. I. (which is some forty miles inland) a beautiful 

 male Sooty Tern {S/i-rna fii/iginosa ) in full breeding 

 plumage. This is undoubtedly the second recorded 

 instance of its capture in this state ; the first one 

 having been shot by Mr. Fred T Jencks at Point 

 Judith, R. I . in September. 1876. It is considered as 

 a rare straggler throughout Southern New England, 

 there being several records for Massachusetts and 

 Connecticut. — H. S. Hathaway, Providence, l\. I. 



NEW JERSEY NOTES. 



On December 17, 1897, I saw a Yellow-bellied 

 Sapsucker [Spliyrapicus varitis) about the trees in 

 our yard. On the 30th of the same month I was sur- 

 prised to see a Catbird {(.ialeoseoptes raroh'nensis) in 

 the bushes on the edge of the woods. He once came 

 within a few yards of me and several times uttered 

 his familiar mew. I have never before seen the Cat- 

 bird here in winter. On Jan 3, 1898, I saw a small 

 flock of Cowbirds {Molotlints ater), 3 males and 4 

 females walking about by the side of a road in the 

 Passaic Valley In the last named locality I saw 

 several Red-headed Woodpeckers ^Melanerpes ery- 

 /krocephaiiis) on January 8. — Waldron DeWitt 

 Miller, Plainfield, N. J. 



