Reviews of Pup.lications 219 



REVIEWS OF PUBLICATIONS 



Handbook of Birds of the Western United States. Florence Mer- 

 riam Bailey. Houghton, Mifflin Co. $3.50, net. Fourth Edition 

 Revised. 



This last edition of a well known and useful book is in the main 

 a reprint of earlier editions, but with an extended '"Addenda " of 

 58 pages, in which are indicated the changes in the nomenclature 

 made in the last revisions of the Check-List of the A. O. U. com- 

 mittee, together with the addition of 56 forms and the elimination 

 of 52. The last part of this "Addenda " is concerned with the 

 " Birds of the Western United States in the Nomenclature of the 

 1910 Check-List," and with a list of "Books of Reference." The 

 book was so complete for its purposes in the first edition that there 

 has been little need for other changes than those given above. 



L. J. 



Alaskan Bird-Life as Depicted by Many Writers, edited by Ernest 

 Ingersoll. Seven plates in colors and other illustrations. Pub- 

 lished by the National Association of Audubon Societies. New 

 York, 1914. 



As stated in the introduction by T. Gilbert Pearson, the Secre- 

 tary of this Association, the object of this volume of 72 pages is 

 for free distribution among the people of Alaska for the purpose of 

 educating them in regard to the real value of the birds and thus 

 securing their cooperation in the conservation of Alaskan birds. 

 This finds the hearty approval of the United States Bureau of 

 Education. The birds of the several districts into which Alaska is 

 divided toix)graphically and climatically are treated on the group 

 plan, and the volume closes with the extended treatment of the 

 Tufted Puffin by William Leon Dawson, the Crested Auklet by 

 Charles Haskins Townseud, the Emperor Goose by Edward W. Nel- 

 son, the Hudsonian Curlew by A. C. Bent, and the Alaskan Long- 

 spur by Edward W. Nelson. There are colored plates of these spe- 

 cies, and of the Red Crossbill. It is a valuable volume. l. j. 



A Peculiarity in the Growth of the Tail Feathers of the Giant Horn- 

 bill (Rhinoplax vigil). Alex. Wetmore, of the Biological Survey, 

 U. S. Dept. Agr. No. 2059. From the Proceedings of the U. S. 

 Nat. Mus. Vol. 47, pages 497-500. Published October 24, 1914. 



It appears that one tail feather of the central pair of long feath- 

 ers is fully developed before the young bird leaves the nest, and 

 that in adult life the new feather of this pair grows out under the 

 old one, the latter not being shed until the new one has become 

 fully grown ; also that the two central long feathers are shed in 



