118 Recent Literature. Uan. 



nor of Alaska on the Alaskan Game Law,' with an appendix giving all 

 information relative to hunting and collecting in the territory. 



' California Fish and Game,' a new publication of the State Fish and 

 Game Commission, 1 contains many timely articles including one by 

 Joseph Grinnell on ' Bird Life as a Community Asset ' which is well worth 

 careful perusal. The ' Hingham Journal ' for October 2, 1914, states editori- 

 ally that thanks to the efforts of Mr. Alexander Pope an extensive bird 

 sanctuary has been established in Hingham, Mass. 



Mr. W. L. Finley's ' Oregon Sportsman ' and the ' Bulletins' of the District 

 of Columbia and New Jersey Audubon Societies continue to keep the public 

 interested in matters of bird and game preservation in their respective 

 communities. 



' Bird Notes and News,' the British quarterly, is full of information on 

 the plume trade and bird protection abroad. The autumn number con- 

 veys the unwelcome information of the failure of the plumage prohibition 

 bill to come to a final vote in Parliament on account of the war. The passage 

 of the bill was assured but the policy of delay so successfully carried out by 

 its opponents, which under ordinary circumstances would have had no ulti- 

 mate effect, has under the extraordinary conditions now prevailing, caused 

 its adoption to be postponed until another session. — W. S. 



Studies in Egg Production in the Domestic Fowl.— The Staff of 

 the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station have continued their investi- 

 gations on this important problem and some of their recent publications 

 contain data of considerable interest to students of inheritance as well as 

 to ornithologists and such oologists as concern themselves with any- 

 thing beyond the external shell of the egg. In a paper by Drs. 

 Raymond Pearl and Frank M. Surface 2 it is ascertained that eggs are 

 relatively more variable in length than in breadth and considerably more 

 in shape than in either of the linear dimensions while in weight and volume 

 they vary more than in any of the other characters. 



The whole process of egg laying is analyzed and many interesting data 

 are presented. 



A paper on somewhat similar lines by Maynie R. Curtis 3 discusses the 

 variation among eggs of the same bird and in eggs laid in consecutive 

 months, and the individuality of eggs of the same bird. 



Dr. Pearl also discusses ' Improving Egg Production by Breeding ' 4 and 

 1 The Brooding Instinct in its Relation to Egg Production.' 5 — W. S. 



1 Edited by H. C. Bryant, Museum Vert. Zool., Univ. of Cal., Berkeley, Cal. 



2 Variation and Correlation in the Physical Characters of the Egg. U. S. Dept. 

 Of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal Industry, Bull. 110, pt. III. July 31, 1914. 



8 Factors Influencing the Size, Shape and Physical Constitution of the Egg of the 

 Domestic Fowl. (Reprinted from Ann. Report, Maine Agr. Exper. Sta., 1914.) 

 * Reprinted from Ann. Report, Maine Agr. Exper. Sta., 1914. 

 6 Reprinted from Journal Animal Behavior, July-Aug., 1914. 



