254 Recent Literature. [ A ^Ja 



experiments with pigeons. Suitable pens were prepared facing each other, 

 and the space between was inclosed by wire netting. The front of each pen 

 was left open, so that pigeons which were placed in the inclosed space 

 between the pens could have easy access to the pens on either side. In one 

 pen pigs sick of cholera were kept and in the other there were healthy, 

 nonimmune pigs. When the sick pigs died they were replaced with others, 

 so that the disease was kept constantly present in one of the pens, and this 

 pen was not cleaned during the course of the experiment. The healthy 

 pigs were changed from time to time. The pigeons constantly flew from 

 the infected pen to the opposite pen containing the well pigs, which was 

 only 10 feet distant. In the different experiments healthy pigs were 

 exposed to infection through the medium of the pigeons for from 30 to 40 

 days. In no case was the disease transmitted by the pigeons, although it is 

 evident that every opportunity was afforded for this to occur. The exposed 

 pigs were proved susceptible by subsequent exposure to cholera. While 

 these experiments can not be said to prove that it is impossible for pigeons 

 to carry hog cholera, it seems fair to conclude that the disease is probably 

 not often carried from one farm to another in that way." 



These experiments under conditions much more favorable to the trans- 

 mission of the disease than ever occur in actual hog raising practice, would 

 seem to indicate that birds, not carrion-feeders, probably never distribute 

 the causative agent of hog cholera on their feet or other parts of their 

 bodies. The relations of the carrion feeders to the disease have previously 

 been discussed in ' The Auk,' 1 and evidence adduced that they have little 

 importance in spreading stock diseases. Nevertheless a violent campaign 

 has been waged against buzzards and crows especially in farm journals, 

 in southern states, and protection has been denied buzzards by legislative 

 enactment in Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. 

 All this on a suspicion which was controverted by facts available at the 

 beginning of the campaign, and which the evidence since accumulated still 

 further discredits. — W. L. M. 



The Ornithological Journals.] 



Bird-Lore. XX, No. 1. January-February, 1918. 



Photographs of Falkland Island Bird-Life. By Rollo H. Beck. — These 

 are some of the pictures which appeared recently in the ' American Museum 

 Journal ' but they do not compare with the latter in quality of printing. 



' Pauperizing ' the Birds. By Henry Oldys. — A clever article discussing 

 the possibility of diverting birds from insect diet by the introduction of 

 feeding stations. The evidence is against such a theory, so that we may 

 go on providing food with a clear conscience. 



» 30, No. 2, April 1913, pp. 295-8. 



