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Recent Literature. |_April 



sented at the Bryan farm, at Marshall, Md., situated about fifteen miles 

 south of Washington. The farm contains about 230 acres, of which 150 

 are cultivated and 80 are in woodland. A study of the food habits of the 

 birds was continued at frequent intervals from July 30, 1895, to July 24, 

 1902, including every month of the year except January. The method of 

 investigating the food of birds by examination of the contents of 

 stomachs, says Dr. Judd, in which the material has been collected from 

 all parts of the United States, may give misleading results ; "the relation 

 of birds to a certain locality or particular farm cannot always be exactly 

 tested by conclusions drawn from a large range of territory. The exact 

 damage to crops is not revealed by stomach examination. A bird may 

 have punctured several grapes in each of a hundred clusters and yet 

 betray to the microscope no sign of its vicious habits," etc. In the 

 present paper Dr. Judd gives us in detail the methods and results of his 

 work on a Maryland farm, and here attempts "to determine whether 

 a given species is, on the whole, helpful or harmful to the farm in 

 question." The principal species are reported upon in detail, with finally 

 a general statement of his conclusions as to what birds are really injurious, 

 what beneficial or neutral, and the manner in which their food habits 

 affect the question of their utility. 



' Two Years with the Birds on a Farm,' by Mr. Edward H. Forbush,' 

 recounts observations made by him on a farm in Wareham, Mass., and is 

 a valuable contribution to the subject of economic ornithology. The 

 ways in which certain birds are useful to the farmer are stated with 

 convincing detail, and the reprehensible traits of some others are not 

 concealed, especially the nest-robbing proclivities of crows, jays, and 

 crow blackbirds. While the crows and jays are useful as insect destroy- 

 ers, they are held to be "very largely responsible for the decrease of the 

 smaller birds." 



' Boll Weevils and Birds ' is an address delivered by Prof. H. P. 

 Attwater ^ at the Texas Cotton Growers' Association Convention held at 

 Dallas, Texas, Nov. 6, 1903. It is an earnest appeal for the legal pro- 

 tection of birds in Texas for the aid they render in checking the increase 

 of noxious insects, including the cotton boll weevil. The address is 

 published and given free distribution by the Passenger Department of 

 the Southern Pacific Railroad. 



' Two Years with the Birds on a Farm. Lecture by Edward Howe Forbush, 

 Ornithologist, Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, delivered at the 

 public winter meeting of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture at 

 North Adams, Dec. 2, 1902. Reprinted from Fiftieth Ann. Rep. Mass. State 

 Board of Agriculture. Svo, pp. 53, with 8 half-tone plates, and 6 text figures. 



^ Boll Weevils and Birds. Address by Prof. H. P. Attwater, Industrial 

 Agent Southern Pacific, at the Second Annual Convention of the Texas 

 Cotton Growers' Association, Dallas, Texas, Nov. 6, 1903. Svo. pp. 11. 



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