Vol. XXI-j Recent Literature. 299 



better than none; and we fancy that this fact, and their comparatively 

 small cost, accounts for their presence in a book worthy of a far better 

 accompaniment. The half-tones in the text, on the other liand, are for 

 the most pait well reproduced, well selected, and appropriate to the text, 

 giving characteristic views of the haunts of many species, as well of many 

 nesting sites, nests and eggs, and of living birds. — J. A. A. 



Mrs. Bailey's ' Handbook of Birds of the Western United States,' 

 Second Edition. — The "second edition, revised "i differs from the fiist 

 mainly through a revision of the matter relating to the Horned Larks 

 (genus Otocoris, pp. 266-269), which has been rewritten and brought down 

 to date, and the addition of Addenda (pp. 486-488) giving a list of the 

 alterations in the names of western birds made by the Nomenclature 

 Committee of the A. O. U. since the publication of the first edition in 

 1902, and also correcting the few omissions and errors of the first edition 

 that could not readily be made in the text. The geneious commendation 

 given the work in our notice of the first edition need not be here repeated. 

 The early call for a second edition shows that the work is appreciated and 

 meets a real need. — J. A. A. 



Mrs. Wheelock's ' Birds of California.' ^ — In this attempt to provide a 

 non-technical manual of three hundred of the commoner birds of Califor- 

 nia the author has attained a high degree of success, and has also pro- 

 duced a work of much permanent value on account of the many original 

 field observations, which add to the sum of our knowledge of the life his- 

 tories of many of the species considered. As to the plan of the work : 

 "Keys have been avoided and a simple classification, according to habitat 

 or color, substituted," following a plan used by a previous author, here 

 adopted and commended. Under the head of 'Contents,' the species are 

 enumerated under the English names of the A. O. U. Check-List, beginning 

 with the ' Water Birds,' which are grouped into sections according to their 

 haunts, followed by 'Land Birds,' grouped as (i) 'Upland Game Birds,' 

 (2) ' Birds of Prey,' and (3) ' Common Land Birds in Color Groups,' 

 which latter are divided, on the basis of color, into eight minor groups. 

 The species are arranged in the same incongruous order in the text, but 

 are designated by the A. O. U. Check-List numbers and names, both tech- 



' For collation and review of the first edition see Auk, XX, 1903, pp. 76-78. 



^ Birds of California | An Introduction | to more than Three Hundred 

 Common | Birds of the State and Adjacent | Islands | With a Supplementary 

 List of rare migrants, accidental | visitants, and hypothetical subspecies | By 

 Irene Grosvenor Wheelock | author of "Nestlings of Forest and Marsh" | 

 With ten full-page plates and seventy-eight drawings | in the text by Bruce 

 Horsfall | [Vignette] Chicago | A. C. McClurg & Co. | 1904 — Sm. 8vo, pp. 

 xxviii -\- 578, 10 half-tone plates, 78 text figures. 



