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Recent Literature. \_f\J\y 



by following rivers or mountain ranges would, as often as not, lead birds 

 right out of their course." In the first place, the conditions furnished by 

 a small island like England are far from those that characterize a large 

 continent, like Europe-Asia or North America. In the second place, we 

 are unable to recall where it has been alleged that birds follow, in their 

 long migratory journeys, either mountain ranges or large streams. Our 

 author says: "There is some indubitable evidence that migration at times 

 proceeds at great heights." The claim is, so far as we are aware, that 

 birds passing at these great heights are able to see the leading features of 

 the landscape beneath them, and that, presuming birds to have memory, 

 they may be thus guided by the principal physical features of the country 

 over which they are passing, and thus follow or cross mountain ranges 

 or river valleys or coast lines as their route may require. 



Just how, or by what means, birds find their way our author fails to 

 tell us, though he admits belief that "birds possess a sense of direction," 

 for how else could Albatrosses and other pelagic birds find their way 

 back, at the proper season, to their breeding stations ; in other words, he 

 savs : "The faculty whereby they direct their flight back to their breeding 

 stations, over hundreds [sometimes thousands] of miles of open water, is 

 doubtless akin to that exhibited by savages and pigeons." There is 

 doubtless a problem here man will strive long to fathom before reaching 

 a wholly satisfactory solution, but the suggestion made by Mr. Austin 

 H. Clark in the April (1905) issue of this Journal (Auk, XXII, pp. 134- 

 140), that the prevailing winds of certain latitudes, especially the trade- 

 winds, may be an important aid, particularly in the case of pelagic wander- 

 ers, seems at least worthy of serious consideration. — J. A. A. 



Riley's 'Birds of the Bahama Islands.' 1 — In this paper is given a 

 carefully prepared summary of our present knowledge of the ornis of the 

 Bahama Islands, consisting of a list of the 204 species and subspecies 

 known to occur there, and notes on their relative abundance and manner 

 of occurrence, preceded by a resume* of ornithological explorations in the 

 archipelago, and by eight pages on ' The Zoogeographical Position of 

 the Bahama Islands.' The 44 endemic species are considered with refer- 

 ence to their derivation or origin. Of these 14 appear to have reached 

 the islands from the eastern United States by way of Florida, and 17 

 from the Greater Antilles, chiefly by way of Cuba, leaving 13 of doubt- 

 ful or fortuitous origin. — J. A. A. 



1 Birds of the Bahama Islands. By Joseph H. Riley, Aid, Division of 

 Birds, U. S. National Museum. From 'The Bahama Islands,' pp. 347-368. 

 Published by the Geographical Society of Baltimore, 1905, George Burbank 

 Shattuck, Ph. D., editor. 



