JOUKNAL OF MAINP: ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 51 



Birds of the Boston Public Garden. 



Birds of the Boston Pubijc Garden. A Study in Migration. By Horace 

 Winslow Wright, with an Introchtction by Bradford Torrey, ami illustra- 

 tions. 238 pages. $1.00 net. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New 



York. 



The Journal has no hesitation in designating this vohime as 

 one of the most satisfactory local lists of birds ever published. For 

 nine years the author has been a constant student of the migration 

 of birds at the Boston Public Garden, adjoining Boston Common. 

 Frequent excursions through that delightful locality in the early 

 morning at the season when the birds are traveling northward or 

 southward have made Mr. Wright perfectly familiar with the con- 

 ditions which govern their arrival and departure. The data which 

 he gives are valuable for all New England students, as well as a 

 service beyond estimate for the young people who are making their 

 first observations in that locality. A description of the Public Gar- 

 den and the vegetation it contains is of exceeding interest. The il- 

 lustrations are excellent half-tone engravings of the trees which at- 

 tract different rare species of birds and the locations which they 

 love. Particulars of the noteworthy features of the migrations for a 

 series of years are given, both from the personal observations of the 

 author and from the added testimony of other reliable observers. 



More than three-fourths of the volume is devoted to an anno 

 tated list, of the birds of the Boston Public Garden and incidentally 

 of the Common, in migration, 1900-1908. This list is exhaustive 

 and authority for numerous records and dates is freely given. An 

 examination of the list is of unusual interest on account of its clear- 

 ness and completeness, as well as the systematic order in which it is 

 arranged. Many birds which one would expect to visit the Public 

 Garden frequently in migration are noted as very rare. On the 

 other hand, birds often are recorded as connnon which one would 

 not expect to find their way to that locality. The book, as a whole, 

 is of great value to the bird student, and it is so well done that it is 

 worth a place in the library of any ornithologist. 



W. H. B. 



