260 Recently puUished Ornithological Works. [Ibis, 



stone Park, by Mr. Newberry on the Wren-Tit {Cham(Ba 

 fasciata), and by INIr, Willard on the disappearing Banded 

 Pigeon {Columha fasciatci) in Arizona. 



The editor of the ' Auk/ Mr. Witmer Stone, prints a 

 charming address read at the meeting of the A. O. U. at 

 San Francisco in 1915. He traces the history of Californian 

 and western ornithology from the time of Capt. Cook, who 

 obtained several birds at Nootka Sound, Vancouver I., until 

 1850, when the great immigration into western America took 

 place and the country became more or less settled. 



Mr. W. L. Dawson, who is to be the Director, outlines 

 his plans for the erection of a new Museum o£ Comparative 

 Oology which has recently been founded at Santa Barbara. 

 A State Chai'ter has been procured, Boards of Trustees 

 and Visitors appointed, and a site obtained, but actual 

 building will not be commenced for three years. The 

 Museum is eventually to comprise a group of twenty-two 

 buihlings ! Mr. Dawson writes very sensibly on some of the 

 problems of ornithology and oology, on which he hopes 

 some light may be shed by the acquisition of a really 

 cosmopolitan collection. 



Ii'ish Naturalist. 



[The Irish Naturalist. A monthly Journal. Vol. xxv. ; for 1916 

 12 numbers.] 



The 'Irish Natnralist' for last year contains several 

 articles on the Crossbill. Mr. C. B. Moffat, Avhose experiences 

 are chiefly in Co. Dublin and Co. Wexford, has found them 

 breeding regularly since 1909, when a large incursion oc- 

 curred, and he noticed that they were particularly abundant 

 in 1915. He has also observed that the Ci'ossbills now in 

 this part of Ireland appeared to prefer the cones of the 

 Larch and Scotch Fir arul never touch those of the Spruce. 

 It is said that on the Continent the Spruce seeds form the 

 greater part of their diet. Mr, Moffat's observations are 

 confirmed by Mr. C. J. Carroll, who sends a history of the 

 Crossbill in Tipperary, where he has found it nesting every 

 year since 1910. The nest is almost invariably placed in a 



