480 Recent Literature. LOct. 



Hardy's Reminiscences of Andrew Downs.'— These reminiscences are 

 based on a long personal acquaintance with this remarkable man while 

 General Hardy was stationed at Halifax on military duty about the middle 

 of the last century. A long article entitled 'An Afternoon with Downs,' 

 contributed to a Halifax newspaper by Mr. Hardy in 1864 is here repro- 

 duced, describing in detail Downs's home and Zoological Gardens at the 

 head of North West Arm, near Halifax, and the personal traits of a man 

 whose name is inseparable from the history of Nova Scotian natural 

 history. Downs's "Zoo" is said to have been the first "established on 

 the American continent." — J. A. A. 



Beal on the Relation of California Birds to the Fruit Industry. 

 Part II. — This is the concluding part of Professor Beal's report on the 

 'Birds of California in Relation to the Fruit Industry.' ^ Part I, treating of 

 38 species, was published in 1907 (see Auk, XXV, Jan., 1908, p. 96). The 

 present part treats of 32 additional species, and consists of statements 

 concerning the food found in the stomach of birds taken mainly in the 

 more thickly settled and highly cultivated parts of the State, since they 

 afford a better test of their relation to husbandry than would the same 

 number of birds taken at random throughout the State. 



In reference to the general subject, the author states: "Few birds are 

 always and everywhere so seriously destructive that their extermination 

 can be urged on sound economic principle. Only four of the species com- 

 mon in California can be regarded as of doubtful utility: These are the 

 linnet [House Finch], California jay, Steller jay and redbreasted sap- 

 sucker. When the known methods of protecting fruit have been exhausted, 

 or cannot be employed profitably, then a reasonable reduction of the 

 numbers of the offending birds is permissible. But the more the food 

 habits of birds are studied the more evident is the fact that with a normal 

 distribution of species and a fair supply of natural food, the damage to 

 agricultural products by birds is small, compared with the benefit." 



Of the California Jay it is said that it does "entirely too much nest 

 robbing for the best interests of the State," as well as being a despoiler 

 of fruit. While woodpeckers in general rank high as useful birds, the 

 Red-breasted Sapsucker is classified as more harmful than beneficial, 

 owing to its habit of pecking holes in the bark of trees and stripping it 

 off in patches. 



The report is illustrated by eight beautiful colored plates, after drawings 



1 Reminiscences of a Nova Scotia Naturalist: Andrew Downs. By Major- 

 General Campbell Hardy, R. A., Dover, England. Proc. and Trans. Nova 

 Scotia Institute of Science, Vol. XII, part 1, pp. xi-xxx. August, 1908. 



2 Birds of Callfonua in Relation to the Fruit Industry. Part II, By F. E. L. 

 Beal, Assistant, Biological Survey. Biological Survey, Bulletin No. 34. 8vo, 

 pp. 96, with 6 colored plates. Washington, Government Printing Office. Issued 

 August 8, 1910. 



