General Notes 101 



PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED 

 The Ornithology of Chester County, Pennsylvania. By Frank L. 



Burns. 



This little book of 122 pages, from the pen of Mr. Frank L. 

 Burns, who has done so much work in this country and published 

 so much about it, is a complete summary to the date of publication 

 of what has been learned about the birds which have been found 

 there. 247 species and subspecies are treated in the text, their 

 status and times of migration given, and the breeding times of 

 those which remain to breed are stated. 16 species are regarded 

 as hypothetical. There are 26 resident species, 72 summer resi- 

 dent species, making 98 breeding species. There are 26 winter visi- 

 tants, 75 transient visitants, 42 stragglers, and 6 have been extir- 

 pated. There are 21 half-tone plates, which add to the interest of 

 this book. "We note some typographical errors (what publication 

 is free from them), but they do not detract from the value of the 

 work. L. J. 



Birds of Eastern Canada. By P. A. Taverner. 



This- is Memoir 104, No. 3, Biological Series, Geological Sur- 

 vey of Canada, Department of Mines. There are 221 pages of the 

 text and 50 colored plates by F. C. Hennessey, illustrating 104 spe- 

 cies. The index brings the number of pages up to 297. The qual- 

 ity of the colored plates shows that we have another successful 

 artist in the field. Mr. Taverner has departed from the beaten 

 paths in his 'presentation of the material of the list in a manner 

 which seems to the reviewer worthy of study. In it the species 

 are treated as the unit, with subspecies as variants from that unit. 

 Whatever may be said about the inconvenience of this method, be- 

 cause it does not wholly conform to the 1910 edition of the Check- 

 List of North American Birds, the fact that the species is actually 

 the unit biologically can hardly be questioned. The exact variant 

 is given, where any occurs, in a special paragraph, the heading of 

 which is in display type. The argument for this method is that 

 it avoids the prevalent tendency of these days to elevate a variant 

 — subspecies — to the rank of a species. L. J. 



