1912 J Recent Literature. llo 



culture, Mr. E. H. Forbush was able to visit the several States in which 

 the Starling has become established, and by personal investigation as well 

 as by correspondence, to secure much historic and economic information 

 concerning the bird, wliich is here presented. The first successful intro- 

 duction of the Starling in America seems to have been in 1890, when Eugene 

 Schieffelin liberated 120 birds in Central Park, New York City. The 

 species has now spread over Long Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, and 

 eastern Pennsylvania, although still most abundant in the vicinity of 

 New York; while it has been reported from Odessa, Del.; Springfield, 

 Mass.; Rhinebeck, N. Y., and Millers\'iIIe, Pa. 



As to the relation of the Starling to our native birds Mr. Forbush finds 

 that it drives away such birds as Flickers, Bluebirds and House Wrens, 

 by occupying their nesting places, while it competes actively with our 

 birds for their food supply. In winter especially the flocks of Starlings 

 scour the country so thoroughly, that they must devour most of the supply 

 of food upon which our winter birds are accustomed to subsist. Further- 

 more, as Mr. Forbush says, " the Starling can give no service that cannot 

 be equally well performed by our own Blackbirds, Meadowlarks, BoboUnks, 

 Sparrows and other birds," while it has already " begim to show a capacity 

 for harmfulness which may be expected to become more prominent as its 

 numbers increase." Accounts of the great damage inflicted upon berry 

 patches and vineyards in Europe, give us some idea of what we may expect 

 from the unfortunate introduction of this undesirable bird. — W. S. 



Strong on the Olfactory Organs and the Sense of Smell in Birds.' 



— Dr. Strong's investigations here presented were of two kinds, morpho- 

 logical and experimental. The former consisted of the study and dis- 

 section of the heads of sixty-five species representing twenty-seven of the 

 thirty-five orders of existing birds; the material being for the most part 

 that contained in the Senckenbergisches Neurologisches Institute at 

 Frankfort-am-Main, Germany, where every faciUty was extended to the 

 author by the director, Prof. Ludwig Edinger. 



These studies gave evidence that (1) the olfactory organs of birds are 

 of too great size to be set aside as non-functional, but that (2) there is a 

 tendency in the bird series toward retrogression in these organs. In the 

 Emu and Fulmar the olfactory lobes were found to be of relatively great 

 size while in the Corvidae they are surprisingly minute. 



Dr. Strong's experimental work consisted mainly of experiments upon 

 Ring Doves in a covered enclosure with four similar accessory chambers 

 communicating with it. These were so constructed that food placed in 

 them was not visible from the main chamber, and by aid of glass tubes and 

 suitable apparatus air currents could be created from any of the accessory 

 chambers which could be charged with odors as desired. 



1 On the Olfactory Organs and the Sense of Smell in Birds. By R. M. Strong. 

 From the Hull Zoological Laboratory, University of Chicago. Journal of Mor- 

 phology, XX, No. 3, September. 1911, pp. 619-658, pi. i-ii and figs. a-d. 



