300 Recent Literature. \_\^x\\ 



nical and vernacular. The descriptions are in small type and very brief, 

 giving only the most characteristic features, the geographical distribu- 

 tion, breeding range and season, and nest and eggs. Then follows, in 

 larger tvpe, a short, well-written biography of the species. No original- 

 ity, of course, is claimed for the technical descriptions, and many of the 

 biographies of the water birds, and of some others, are compiled, and 

 often in part quoted, with due credit, from previous authors. But a large 

 proportion of the land birds have come within the personal experience of 

 the writer, whose researches, begun in 1894, have extended throughout a 

 large part of the State, and hence her biographies are based on original 

 observations and contain much new information. The work closes with 

 a briefly annotated 'Supplementary List' of the species and subspecies 

 thus far recorded from California in addition to the three hundred form- 

 ally treated, the list being compiled from authentic and accredited sources. 



In the introduction the author makes some generalizations respecting 

 the feeding habits of young birds that are to a large extent new and some- 

 what surprising; their confirmation or disproval opens up an interesting 

 field of research. She says : " Long and careful study of the feeding habits 

 of young birds in California and the Eastern United States has led the 

 author to make some statements which may incur the criticism of orni- 

 thologists who have not given especial attention to the subject. For 

 instance, — that the young of all macrochires, woodpeckers, perching birds, 

 cuckoos, kingfishers, most birds of prey, and many seabirds are fed by 

 regurgitation from the time of hatching through a period varying in 

 extent from three days to four -weeks., according to the species. . . . Out of 

 one hundred and eighty cases recorded by the author, in every instance 

 where the young were hatched in a naked or semi-naked condition they 

 were fed in this manner for at least three days. In some instances the 

 food was digested, wholly or in part ; in others it was probably swal- 

 lowed merely for convenience in carrying, and was regurgitated in an 

 undigested condition." A few specific instances are cited here in illustra- 

 tion, and many others are given in the biographies. 



Mrs. Wheelock's manual is in several ways noteworthy, and should 

 prove most welcome to would-be bird students of the Pacific coast, and of 

 interest to ornithologists in search of fresh information on the life histo- 

 ries of California birds. — J- A. A. 



Torrey's 'The Clerk of the Woods." — The thirty two short essays 

 here brought together received previous simultaneous publication in the 

 'Evening Transcript' of Boston and the 'Mail and Express' of New 

 York. Those familiar with the author's previous books do not need to 



'The Clerk | of the Woods | By | Bradford Torrey | • . . . | Boston and 

 New York | Houghton, Mifflin and Company | The Riverside Press, Cam- 

 bridge I 1903— i6mo., pp. i-viii, 1-280. $110 net, postage extra. 



