1920 J Recent Literature. 615 



Why cannot every member of the A. O. U. post himself on the laws as 

 they affect the birds of his state and make it his business to converse with 

 as many gunners as possible and let them know in the course of conversa- 

 tion that he is informed on the law and is on the lookout for violators? 

 In the case of boys or ignorant gunners actually engaged in illegal shoot- 

 ing or preparing to do so, the law and the penalties could be forcibly ex- 

 plained. Educational work of this sort carried on with a little tact will 

 do a world of good and exemplify once more the old adage that an ounce 

 of prevention is worth a pound of cure. — W. S. 



Peters on a New Jay. — In this short paper 1 Mr. Peters describes as 

 new the form of the Canada Jay occurring at Red Deer, Alberta, calling 

 it Perisoreus canadensis albescens (p. 5). The specimens examined are 

 in the Brewster collection, now in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 and are paler than any of the other known races. — W. S. 



Chapman on Ostinops decumanus. 2 — As a result of a study of a 

 large series of this Cacique Dr. Chapman separates the birds from Bolivia, 

 Peru and south-western Brazil from the typical form of northern South 

 America, as Ostinops decumanus macidosus (p. 26) Yungus, Bolivia, char- 

 acterized by a sprinkling of yellow or white feathers over the body and 

 wing-coverts The most important part of his paper however is the care- 

 ful study of variation which it contains. The author finds variation of 

 several kinds represented in this species the most striking being in the 

 shape and size of the wings and tail in male birds from the same locality, 

 which he attributes partly to age and partly to other factors. Dr. Chap- 

 man's paper should be carefully studied by anyone contemplating further 

 subdivision of this or allied species while it is also an important contribu- 

 tion to the problem of variation in general. — W. S. 



Lonnberg on 'The Birds of the Juan Fernandez and Easter 

 Islands.' 3 — The material upon which this paper is based was procured 

 on the Swedish Pacific Expedition of 1916-17 by Mr. Kare Backstrom, 

 zoologist of the party. From the Juan Fernandez specimens of twenty 

 species were obtained which are described in detail by the author, the 

 Cinclodcs hitherto regarded as C. fuscus being separated under the name 

 C. oustaleti baeckstroemii (p. 4). The interesting hummingbird, Eus- 

 tephanus fernandensis was taken in various stages of molt, some indi- 



1 A New Jay from Alberta. By James Lee Peters. Proc. New England Zool. 

 Club, VII, pp. 51-5. May 4, 1920. 



2 Unusual Types of Apparent Geographic Variation in Color and of Individual 

 Variation in Size Exhibited by Ostinops decumanus. By Frank M. Chapman. 

 Proc. Biol. Society of Washington, Vol. 33, pp. 25-32. July 24, 1920. 



3 The Birds of the Juan Fernandez Islands. 



Notes on Birds from Easter Island. By Einar Lonnberg, pp. 1-24. Extract 

 from The Natural History of Juan Fernandez and Easter Island. Edited by 

 Dr. Carl Skottsberg. Vol. III. 1920. [In English.] 



