452 



Bird- Lore 



was reformed on practical lines, which 

 therefore no doubt appealed to Jimmy 

 much as thej' do to the reader of his 

 history. 



Incidentally, Jimmy's brother and sis- 

 ter and father and mother shared in the 

 reformation, and the story of how this 

 was done may be read by parents to their 

 children with possible benefit to them all. 

 — F. M. C. 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The Auk.— The July issue of 'The 

 .'Vuk' opens with a paper on 'The Moults 

 and Plumages of the Scoters, — Genus 

 Oidemia' by Dr. J. Dwight, Jr. It is 

 illustrated with a color plate showing 

 the heads ot the six species belonging to 

 this group of Ducks, with photographs of 

 the different stages of plumage and with 

 silhouettes of feather tips showing how the 

 distal primary varies according to species, 

 se.x and age. Sportsmen as well as other 

 readers should find much of interest in 

 the facts presented. 



A careful piece of work is 'A List of 

 Birds from the Vicinity of Golden, Col- 

 orado' by R. B. Rockwell and A. Wetmore 

 the article being well illustrated. A pains- 

 taking study of a dift'erent order is 'Pearly 

 Records of the Wild Turkey" by A. H. 

 Wright who has delved into many an old 

 volume in order to gather the material 

 from which he quotes so freely. Dr. R. 

 W. Shufeldt discusses the 'Osteology of 

 the Passenger Pigeon {Ectopistes migra- 

 torius),' the photograph of a skeleton 

 being shown. G. L. Simmons in 'Notes 

 on the Louisiana Clapper Rail {Rallus 

 crepitans saturatiis) in Texas' is of the 

 opinion that this is the only form of the 

 Clapper Rail found along the Texas coast. 



A new Dusky Grouse {Dendragapus 

 ohscurus flemingi) from the Yukon, Can- 

 ada, is described by P. A. Taverner, and 

 a new Hawaiian Petrel {Oceanodroma 

 castru baiigsi) from Lat. i° N. Long. 93° 

 W. is named by J. T. Nichols. The many 

 reviews in the department of Recent 

 Literature indicate that most of the newly 

 described birds of the present day are 



merely races; — the subspecies mill grinds 

 very fine! 



The October issue completes the thirty- 

 first year of publication of 'The Auk' with 

 no serious competitor in sight. This is 

 largely a South Atlantic number, for R. C. 

 Murphy contributes 'Observations on 

 Birds of the South Atlantic,' while J. T. 

 Nichols and R. C. Murphy add 'A Review 

 of the Genus Phoebetrin.' Both papers 

 are illustrated by numerous photographs 

 taken by Mr. Murphy, many of them 

 being snapshots from on board shij). 

 The abundance of bird-life on the ocean is 

 strikingly portrayed, and fishing for 

 Tubinares with trailing bait and landing 

 them out of the air seems to be an excit- 

 ing sport. A new Albatross {Phcebetria 

 palpebrata audiiboni) is described from a 

 series of two specimens, but the several 

 races seem to rest on rather slender dif- 

 ferences at best. 



.\. H. Wright continues his paper on 

 'Early Records of the Wild Turkey, II,' 

 R. W. Williams, supplements his earlier 

 lists with 'Notes on the Birds of Leon Co., 

 Florida — Third Supplement,' and W. W. 

 Cooke presents an annotated list of 'Some 

 Winter Birds of Oklahoma,' no species in 

 all, which is a large number to be recorded 

 in a seven-months residence. It is pleas- 

 ant to find a list prefaced by remarks on 

 the weather, an important factor that is 

 too often omitted. 



A somewhat exhaustive paper on 'The 

 California Forms of the Genus Psaltri- 

 pariis,' by H. S. Swarth, leads to no satis- 

 factory conclusions. The Bush-tits, some 

 four hundred specimens of them, are 

 brought to the bar and left there, for in 

 Mr. Swarth's own words 'The whole 

 problem of the inter-relationships of the 

 three species of Psaltriparus is one of 

 decided interest, the facts so far accumu- 

 lated being of a suggestive though tan- 

 talizingly inclusive nature.' Then why 

 publish them to tantalize everybody? 

 There is certainly something uncanny 

 about a series of four hundred specimens, 

 nowadays, that does not show a new 

 subspecies. The reviews of the ornithologi- 

 cal journals is an extremely valuable 



