Publications Reviewed 47 



Publications Reviewed 



Current Items of Interest, prepared by Henry Oldys, under the direc- 

 tion of the Audubon Society of the District of Columbia, January 20, 

 19] 4, is one of the quarterly series which contains many items of interest 

 particularly relating to the protection of birds against plumage traffic. 

 We are pleased to note from it that the enactment of the Tariff Plumage 

 Measure is bearing fruit in Europe. The present outlook for any co- 

 operation from France and Italy, and probably Spain, is dark. But con- 

 tinual agitation may finally result in the world-wide suppression of 

 traffic in plumages for purposes of personal adornment. L. J. 



There has come into our hands a ' ' Bird Study Note Book, ' ' prepared 

 by Clara Cozard Keezel, and for sale by her at Garnett, Kansas, at 27c 

 the single copy, discount for quantities. It is designed for Intermediate 

 and Grammar grades. It is 6Vi by 8^/4 inches, and ruled to meet the 

 needs which are suggested in the preface and on the last page. As a 

 skeleton for observation and for making records it should prove of value. 

 It seems to the writer to be better to the Intermediate than to the Gram- 

 mar grades. Pupils of the Grammar grades are likely to want to keep 

 records more elaborately than this little book makes possible. For them 

 some loose sheet system would likely prove effective. L. J. 



"Descriptions of Ten New African Birds of the Genera Pogonocichla, 

 Cossypha, Bradypterus, Sylvietta, Melaniparus, and Zosterops. ' ' By Edgar 

 A. Mearns, Associate in Zoology, U. S. National Museum. Smithsonian 

 Miscellaneous Collections, Volume 61, Number 20. (Publication 2251.) 

 November 29, 1913. "Four of the forms herein described are from the 

 collection made by the Childs Frick African Expedition, 1911-1912; 

 three are from the collection made by the Paul J. Eainey Expedition 

 1911-1912; one is from the Smithsonian African Exj^edition, 1909-1910 

 collection, made under the direction of Col. Theodore Eoosevelt; and two 

 were collected by Dr. W. L. Abbott in 1888." The new forms here de- 

 scribed are all sub-species. L. J. 



' ' Nature Study Review, ' ' the official organ of the American Nature 

 Study Society. The January number, 1914, contains a report, under the 

 caption ' ' Some Students ' Work, ' ' of two sets of observations by Nor- 

 mal Students, in which several birds are made the major objects of 

 study. Both of these reports show the need of some editing. Nature 

 study ought to have as one of its requirements accuracy, as far as it is 

 possible to secure it. Here we find the names of the birds, some of 

 them, inexcusably inaccurately printed, because it would be easy to have 

 them right. In most cases the "Identification Characters" do not 

 identify at all. If these are two fair samples of Normal School Nature 



