Reviews



258



REVIEWS


North American Diving Birds


Life Histories of North American Diving Birds, Order


Pygopodes. By Arthur Cleveland Bent. United States


National Museum, Bulletin 107.


Among the many ornithological publications which come to one’s

notice each year, most deal either with classification, the description

of new species or local races, or accounts of recently acquired

collections of skins ; it is therefore most refreshing (especially to an

aviculturist) to receive a highly interesting and exhaustive treatise

of well over two hundred pages dealing exclusively with the life-

histories of a group of very charming birds.


In the preparation of his valuable article Mr. Bent has been assisted

by numerous friends, both with useful information respecting the

habits of the different species and their distribution, and also by the

contribution of many admirable photographs of the birds, their nests,

and nesting-sites. Among these illustrations, all of which are excellent,

those facing pp. 3, 49, and 185 strike one as being singularly

attractive.


The paper commences with the Grebes (Colymbidse), the account of

which occupies nearly forty-seven pages ; it then passes on to the

Loons (Gaviidse), known to us as Divers * ; on p. 82 the history of the

Alcidae (Auks, Murres or Guillemots, and Puffins) commences, and

continues to the end of the treatise. The completeness of the

information respecting the various species, together with the numerous

beautiful illustrations, must appeal at once to any student of nature.

A dozen very characteristic coloured plates of the eggs accompany

the article.


It might perhaps have been advantageous to those who like myself

do not possess a synonymic catalogue of the Pygopodes if Mr. Bent had

inserted the synonymy of each species under its name. In these days of

priority-worship and the hair-splitting of genera and species, the names

of many of the best-known forms have been so altered that to a naturalist


* On the Norfolk Broads this name is given to the Grebes.


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