158 Recent Literature. [j^ n . 



the local bird student but to others interested in the broader study of the 

 habits and songs of the species to which they refer. 



The volume, which is privately printed, is a beautiful example of the 

 bookmaker's art, with perfect typography and excellent half-tones of many 

 of the commoner birds or their nests, from photographs by Henry Emerson 

 Tuttle. There is also a fronticepiece portrait of Mrs. Farwell, to whom this 

 little book is a most fitting memorial. — W. S. 



Hudson's ' The Book of a Naturalist ' ' — Mr. Hudson's many readers 

 will be glad to learn of the appearance of another of his delightful volumes. 

 The sketches which it includes appeared originally in various of the English 

 magazines and hence have probably been read by few on this side of the 

 Atlantic. Almost all of them deal with English country life though 

 there are occasional allusions to Patagonia, with which country the author's 

 name is so closely associated. There are in all twenty-nine chapters treat- 

 ing of the whole range of out-door life — mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, 

 wild flowers, earthworms and even the potato, while a good index guides 

 one to the many interesting and important observations which lie hidden 

 away in the pages. The volume is hardly on a par with its predecessors 

 and while some of the sketches are full of the great out doors of which the 

 author loves to write, they give one the impression of being a collection of 

 odds and ends which had not yet been brought together in book form. 

 Only three of the present sketches relate to birds, two of them dealing with 

 herons and heronries.— W. S. 



Dixon on Wild Ducks in a City Park. 2 — Every visitor to the city of 

 Oakland, California will be shown Lake Merritt, a beautiful body of water 

 of about a square mile in extent, situated in the heart of the city and famous 

 as the winter resort of thousands of wild fowl. In the present paper, Mr. 

 Dixon describes the winter bird-life of the lake illustrating his account 

 with a number of excellent photographs. 



Lake Merritt is the oldest State game reservation in California, having 

 been established in 1869. No gunning whatever is allowed there and dogs 

 not in leash are not permitted in the park, furthermore a large area of the 

 lake is shut off by a log boom and boating there in the winter is forbidden. 

 Last but not least about four tons of whole barley are fed to the ducks every 

 winter at a cost to the city of about $400. 



As a result some 2500 wild ducks are to be found on the lake throughout 

 the winter from October to the end of the shooting season, in February, 

 when it is safe for them to scatter over the country for a few weeks before 

 returning north. Large numbers of the birds come out on the lawns adjoin- 



iThe Book of a Naturalist. By W. H. Hudson. George H. Doran Company, New 

 York. Svo. (1919) pp. i-viii, 1-360. 



2 Wild Ducks as Winter Guests in a City Park. By Joseph Dixon. National Geographic 

 Magazine, October, 1919. pp. 331-342. 



