510 Recent Literature. [ 0c t. 



Laing's ' Out with the Birds.' x — Mr. Laing seems not only to know 

 his birds but to know how to tell us about them, and as we turn the pages 

 of his book we share with him the enthusiasm of the nature lover and the 

 excitement of the bird photographer. The unique feature of 'Out with the 

 Birds' is that it treats of a region not generally touched upon by nature 

 writers — - Manitoba, and naturally the birds that occupy the attention 

 of the bird student are not those which usually figure in our outdoor 

 bird books. When spring awakens, it is not to the accompaniment of 

 Bluebird warble, but the honking of Geese on the prairie and the "tinkling, 

 fairy melody" of the Lapland Longspur chorus on the eve of departure 

 for farther north. The morning awakening begins with the booming of 

 the Sharp-tailed Grouse, the lisping song of the Prairie Horned Lark, 

 high in the air, and the clamor of the ducks in the marshes. 



The mating antics of the Grouse are fully described and we learn of the 

 habits of various ducks, happily free from the usual accompaniment of 

 shotgun and hunters' anecdotes. We learn too of the life of the White- 

 rumped Shrike, Franklin's Gull, Black Tern and Snow Goose. Mr. Laing's 

 syllabic representations of the songs of certain familiar species are original 

 and quite as effective as the more familiar ones. For example the Towhee's 

 song as he hears it is "Sweet, bird sin-n-n-ng" and the White-throated 

 Sparrow far away from the New England home of " Old Sam Peabody " 

 says "Oh, dear Canada! Canada! Canada!" 



The illustrations, while they do not average up to the best that our bird 

 photographers of today produce are attractive and add much to the inter- 

 est of the book. One serious defect is the lack of an index which makes it 

 difficult for the bird student to pick out from the text the information on 

 any given species. — W. S. 



Cooke on Bird Migration. 2 — This little pamphlet is, so far as its object 

 and scope are concerned, a new edition of a similar one published some 

 twelve years 3 ago, but it is much fuller and replete with additional informa- 

 tion. It covers the subject quite fully under the headings Causes of Migra- 

 tion, Relation of Migration to Weather, Day and Night Migrants, Distance 

 of Migration, Routes of Migration, Direct and Circuitous Migration 

 Routes, Eccentric Migration Routes, Wide and Narrow Migration Routes, 

 Slow and Rapid Migration, How Birds find their Way, Migration and 

 Molting Casualties during Migration, Are Birds exhausted by Long Flight? 

 Evolution of Migration Routes, Normal and Abnormal Migration, Relative 



1 Out With the Birds. By Hamilton M. Laing. Illustrated with Photographs. 

 New York. Outing Publishing Company, MCMXIIT. 8vo. pp. 1-249. $1.50, 

 postage 12 cts. extra. 



2 Bird Migration. By Wells W. Cooke. U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. Bulletin 

 No. 185. April 17, 1915. pp. 1-47. 



3 Some New Facts about the Migration of Birds. Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agr. 

 for 1903. 



