°'i9i9 J Recent Literature. 605 



lishing it in revised form in a single list as a number of ' The Austral Avian 

 Record,' or in some journal where it would be generally available. — W. S. 



Wetmore on Lead Poisoning in Waterfowl. 1 — This is a report of 



especial interest to gunners and gun clubs. The birds that are affected 

 pick up shot about the shooting grounds, where a considerable amount has 

 naturally accumulated. In one marsh in Utah it was estimated that 

 75,000 shot gun shells are used each season, each of which contains about 

 an ounce of shot, so that the accumulation is very great, and experimental 

 sifting of the mud where the ducks fed discovered shot always present. 

 Experiments on captive birds showed that six pellets of No. 6 shot were 

 sufficient to cause the death of a Mallard. While magnesia sulphate acts 

 as a cure there is apparently no way to check the poisoning, and attention 

 of gunners is called to the lead poisoning so that the symptoms may be 

 understood by persons finding birds so affected. The general results of 

 this investigation have already been published in the Journal of the 

 Washington Academy of Sciences, June 4, 1918. — W. S. 



French's ' The Passenger Pigeon in Pennsylvania.' 2 — The title of 

 this little book is slightly misleading, as fully half of the text is occupied 

 with Indian and forest lore of Pennsylvania and accounts of the Passenger 

 Pigeon in other parts of the United States, from Wilson, Audubon, Cooper, 

 etc., as well as accounts of pigeons in general compiled from not very accu- 

 rate sources. The portions devoted to the Passenger Pigeon in Pennsylva- 

 nia are scattered through the volume, separated by chapters and paragraphs 

 dealing with other topics, with a total lack of system or plan. They are 

 of very unequal value, some from old pigeon hunters written in their 

 declining years when memory is not always to be trusted, others consisting 

 of newspaper articles reprinted verbatim and open to the usual criticism 

 that attaches to such publications. 



The best chapter is that by Col. H. W. Shoemaker on 'The Passenger 

 Pigeon — Its Last Phase,' in which the final disappearance of the species 

 is sketched and the last alleged observations enumerated. Even here, 

 however, no mention is made of the last specimens actually secured in the 

 state. 



Some of the information contained in the book is absolutely erroneous, 

 as for instance, the statement that two eggs constituted a clutch, when we 

 have the testimony of reliable ornithologists from the time of Alexander 

 Wilson down, that only one egg was laid. 



1 Lead Poisoning in Waterfowl. By Alexander Wetmore. Bulletin 793, U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, pp. 1-12. July 31, 1919. 



2 The Passenger Pigeon in Pennsylvania. Its Remarkable History, Habits and Extinc- 

 tion, with Interesting Side Lights on the Folk and Forest Lore of the Alleghanian Region of 

 the Old Keystone State. By John C. French. Altoona, Pa. 1919. pp. 1-257, numerous 

 half-tone illustrations. For sale at the Franklin Bookshop, 920 Walnut St., Philadelphia. 

 Price, SL00. 



