°'j 91 g / J Recent Literature. 133 



of crops and as carriers of cattle disease is emphasized, as well as the im- 

 portance of conserving the Buteonine hawks as a natural check upon them 

 when their chief enemy the Coyote disappears. The plea that has recently 

 been advanced in Pennsylvania in defense of removing protection from 

 these birds — i. e. that the farmer cannot distinguish one hawk from 

 another and therefore does not know when he can kill a hawk, if some are 

 protected and others not, is disposed of in the following words: " With so 

 much at stake a farmer or sportsman is no more justified in advancing 

 ignorance as an excuse than he is in proclaiming his inability to distinguish- 

 between crops and weeds. . .discrimination is a part of his business and 

 as such should be studied." Eight colored figures of hawks from clever 

 paintings mainly by F. C. Hennessey illustrate the paper. — W. S. 



' Aves ' in the Zoological Record. 1 — Mr. W. L. Sclater has again ably 

 catalogued the ornithological literature of the world, for the year 1916. 

 Titles to the number of 942 are listed and systematically catalogued, an 

 increase of eight over 1915. We notice that the German ornithological 

 journals were accessible in England for at least a part of 1916, while none 

 have reached ' The Auk ' or any of the American libraries, so far as we are 

 aware, since the issues for July or August, 1915! Evidently the British 

 ornithologists are not inclined to adopt Lord Walsingham's suggestion 

 (cf. Nature, Sept. 5, 1918) that for the next twenty years at least scientific 

 men shall by common consent ignore all papers published in the German 

 language. Dr. W. J. Holland's reply to Lord Walsingham's proposition 

 (Science, Nov. 8, 1918) should be read by all interested in this matter, 

 and we think all fair-minded persons will agree with him that there are 

 plenty of ways to secure justice against the Germans without disrupting 

 the whole underlying framework of scientific nomenclature, which we have 

 been at such pains to build up. Such arbitrary action is, as he says, only 

 an attempt " to beat the Prussians by Prussianizing ourselves." We are 

 therefore very glad to find the last installment of ' Aves ' as complete as 

 its predecessors with the contributions from the central powers included, 

 no matter how strictly we may hold them accountable for the crimes of the 

 war. The value of Mr. Sclater's compilation to the working ornithologist 

 we have emphasized on a former occasion and we can only endorse what was 

 said then and again commend the Zoological Society for maintaining this 

 record for us during the strenuous years that have just passed. — W. S. 



Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of New York. 2 — Besides the 

 usual numerous notes dealing mainly with the vicinity of New York City 



1 Zoological Record, Vol. LIII, 1916. Aves. By W. L. Sclater, M. A., pp. 1-72. 

 August, 1918. Printed for the Zoological Society of London, sold at their House in Regent's 

 Park, London, N. W. Price six shillings. 



2 Abstract of the Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of New York for the year ending 

 March 12, 1918, No. 30, 1917-1918. Issued September 18, 1918, pp. 1-38, one plate. 



