^'"'^gif^T R<^ce7it Literalure. 119 



Cooke on the Distribution of the American Egrets.' — TMs circular 

 consists of two maps showing by actual records the original distributioo 

 of the Egret, Herodias egretla, and the Snowy Egret, Egretta candidissiina, 

 with brief remarks upon their past and present range. " Fortunately," 

 says Prof. Cooke, " in the case of each of these species, breeding colonies 

 still remain in the southern United States to serve as centers of distribution 

 to the districts formerly included in the range." So long however as States 

 like Pennsylvania afford these birds no protection, and the pot hunter 

 shoots at every " white crane " that strays north of the present limited 

 breeding range, the outlook for the extension of this range to its former 

 limits is discouraging. — W. S. 



Fleming on a New Teal from the Andaman Islands. ^ — Mr. Fleming 

 finds that six specimens of Polionetta recently received from North Reef 

 Island, west of North Andaman, differ constantly from specimens of P. 

 albigularis from South Andaman, and he proposes to separate them as 

 P. a. leucopareus. — W. S. 



Rubow's ' Life of the Common Gull ' — This is an English translation 

 of the original Danish edition already reviewed in these pages, with the 

 same excellent series of illustrations. — W. S. 



Gentry's ' Life-Histories' — A Belated Review.^ — These volumes were 

 not adequately reviewed when first issued, nor since, so far as the writer 

 is aware. As if by common consent they have been very consistently 

 ignored by American ornithologists. Although the writer believes that 

 untrustworthiness in supposedly scientific work should be fully exposed, 

 he has up to the present acquiesced in the silent treatment of Gentry's 

 volumes. Now, after a lapse of more than 30 years, comes a case which 

 shows how necessary it is for those to point out errors who are enabled to 

 do so by familiarity with the subject or the man. It would not be necessary 

 to discuss the character of a work so generally consigned to oblivion, were 

 it not for the fact that it now seems to be taken seriously abroad. Mr. G. 

 A. K. Marshall, in presenting a collection of the records of birds attacking 

 butterflies (in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1909, pp. 329-383) quotes freely 



1 Distribution of the American Egrets. By W. W. Cooke. Circular 84. 

 Bureau of Biological Survey, U. S. Department of Agriculture. Issued September 

 13, 1911. pp. .5. 



2 A New Teal from the Andaman Islands. By J. H. Fleming. Prnc. Biol. 

 Soc. of Washmgton, XXIV. pp. 215-216, Oct. 31, 1911. 



3 The Life of | the Common Gull | told in Photographs | By | C. Rubow | Trans- 

 lated from the Danish | Witherby & Co. | 326 High Holborn, London, W. C. | 

 1911 — 8vo, [pp. 6], 25 illustrations from photographs from life. 



^ Gentry, Thos. G. IJfe-Histories of the birds of eastern Pennsylvania, Vol. I, 

 399 pp. PubUshed by the author, Philadelphia, 1876. Vol. II, 336 pp. Salem, 

 Mass., 1877. 



