Review 91


he could get to the Quail with it. The astonishment and indignation of

both the Quail and the Plover are quite comic. Recently a little Black-

cap Warbler hen found its way into the aviary, I don't quite know

how, but it has become apparently a willing prisoner. This bird has

proved a great thorn in the flesh to our two friends, as not only will

it snatch the worms from out of their very beaks, but it will even catch

them in the air when thrown to them. It is extraordinary how tame

this bird has become in a short time. One day it helped itself to some

bread and milk I was carrying in my hand. The Plover is now coming

into adult plumage. In juvenile plumage they are very like miniature

Golden Plovers. If a true pair could be obtained I feel sure that they

would breed here.



REVIEW


The Value of Insectivorous Birds

The current number of the Auk, vol. xxxviii, No. 2, contains the

concluding parts of Alfred 0. Gross's paper upon the Dickcissel (Spiza

americana) and of Harrison F. Lewis's article on the nesting of the

Philadelphia Viieo, the first parts of which were noticed in a recent

number of our magazine. The former is principally devoted to the

plumage changes from the time of hatching to maturity, the various

phases being illustrated by over a score of photographs, but to avicul-

turists perhaps the most interesting section will be the pages devoted to

the food of this bird from its earliest days to the time of its death.

Mr. Gross clearly shows that although this bird eats a certain amount

of grain, mostly waste grain, at harvest-time, it is of incalculable benefit

to the farmer for the number of grasshoppers it destroys. He computes

that in the State of Illinois alone the Dickcissels during the active period

of the nesting season save the State over four million dollars a day by

keeping down the grasshoppers which feed on the growing hav-crops.


Divorce amongst Wrens


Mr. S. Prentice Baldwin has some interesting observations on the


banding, what we call the " ringing ". of birds, and of the practical


application of this method of identification to the study of the habits


of the House Wren {Troglodytes nnl,,),). He shows, incidentally, that



