174 Recent Literature. [jan. 



Clarke, John M. The New Gaspe Bird Sanctuaries. (Natural 

 History, XIX, No. 4-5, April-May, 1919.) — An excellent account of the 

 bird rock and Bonaventure Gannet colonies and the recent action of the 

 Canadian government for their better protection. Illustrated by beautiful 

 photographs by Chapman, Taverner, Cramp, etc. 



Bailey, Alfred M. Notes on Our Hawaiian Reservation. (Ibid.) 

 A splendidly illustrated article. 



Allen, James Lane. Alexander Wilson. (Ibid.) This is a reprint of a 

 chapter from Mr. Allen's book ' The Kentucky Warbler.' It is written in a 

 very attractive style that will hold the attention of the readers of the story, 

 but unfortunately as is too often the case when a writer of fiction endeavors 

 to incorporate history or biography into his work he is very careless of 

 details and is likely to start misstatements which will be perpetuated by 

 those who take his writing at face value. Wilson was not a school teacher 

 when he visited Virginia but still a weaver; it was Lawson not Bartram 

 who suggested that he try his hand at drawing, and several other statements 

 of the author are pure assumptions. Furthermore Mr. Allen seems to have 

 become rather confused in his geography if he thinks that upon landing at 

 New Castle Delaware, Wilson could have disappeared in the " forests of 

 New Jersey." The Delaware River, here over two miles wide would have 

 to be crossed first. His account is so clearly based upon that of Ord, that it 

 is a pity he did not follow it more closely in details. 



There is also an interesting reproduction of an original drawing of 

 Wilson's in the possession of the American Museum of Natural History 

 depicting the head of an American Egret with an accompanying account 

 of it by the editor of the journal. In this it is referred to as a White Crane, 

 while Titian Peale is mentioned as a naturalist friend of Wilson, who as it 

 happened died when Peale was but a lad of thirteen! 



Oberholser, Harry C. An Unrecognized Subspecies of Melanerpes 

 erythrocephalus. (The Canadian Field Naturalist, September, 1919.) — 

 In this paper, Dr. Oberholser may be correct in his ornithology but his 

 nomenclature is decidedly open to question. (See antea p. 145). 



Saunders, W. E. Nesting of the Caspian Tern in the Georgian Bay. 

 (Ibid.). 



Taverner, P. A. An Important Distinction Between our Two Golden- 

 eyes. (Ibid.). — Attention is called to the more vertical angle of the skull, 

 in front, in the Barrow's Goldeneye and to the much more moderate dila- 

 tion in the windpipe. 



Griscom, Ludlow. War Impressions of French Bird Life. — An inter- 

 esting account of the familiar species and a comparison with the birds of 

 the United States. 



Wintemberg, W. J. Archaeology as an Aid to Zoology. (Ibid. No. 4, 

 October, 1919.) — Includes a discussion of the past and present range of the 

 Wilk Turkey and Great Auk. As an illustration of the failure of many 

 persons to grasp the present idea of a binomial group name and its several 

 trinomial elements (cf. Taverner and Stone, ' Auk,' 1919, pp. 316-318) the 



