^'°'i9if ^"^1 Recent Literature. 263 



rhythms. To such causes are due some of the most extraordinary phenom- 

 ena of nests and nest hfe, such as the ' cuckoo instinct,' double, compound, 

 or superimposed nests, the desertion of the last young, etc." (p. 336). 



While criticising most of the literature of nest-building Prof. Herrick 

 also points out the difficulties with which students of the subject have to 

 contend — especially the necessity for continuous observation for hours 

 and even days. " In spite of such drawbacks, however, it would be 

 difficult to name a field in the province of behavior where the right kind 

 of study promises more interesting results the world over, and where 

 some of the phenomena to be witnessed close to your door, may be as worthy 

 of record as anything observed in the forests of Brazil or of Africa." — W. S. 



Beebe and Crandall on The Undescribed Juvenal Plumage of 

 the Yucatan Jay.^ — The plumages and molt of specimens of Cissilopha 

 yucatanica living in the New York Zoological Park, are here described. 

 When received they were in full juvenal plumage with the entire head and 

 underparts white. This changed at the post-juvenal molt to the usual 

 black, and subsequently the white tipped rectrices were replaced by those 

 of uniform blue while the mandibles and eye ring eventually became black. 

 The yellow bill is thus a character of immaturity and not sexual, as has 

 sometimes been supposed. The early white breasted plumage in this 

 species was quite unexpected. — W. S. 



Henshaw's Report of the Chief of the Biological Survey for 1911.2 



— The important work of this branch of the U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture in its efforts to protect the useful birds and game of the country and 

 to check the depredations of noxious species, is too well known to require 

 detailed notice in this connection, but anyone who reads Mr. Henshaw's 

 interesting report will be astonished at the varied fields in which the activi- 

 ties of the Survey are carried on, and the benefits that they render to the 

 Agricultural and other interests of the United States. Special ornitho- 

 logical investigations of the year have dealt with the Birds of Arkansas, 

 the Food of Woodpeckers, the Food of Wild Waterfowl, while field work 

 has been prosecuted in Alabama, Idaho, Arkansas, Kentucky, Montana, 

 Tennessee, Wyoming and Virginia. — W. S. 



Townsend's Captain Cartwright and his Labrador Journal.'^ 



Dr. Charles W. Townsend already well known for his w^ritings on the 



' The Undescribed Juvenal Plumage of the Yucatan Jay. By C. Wiliiam Beebe 

 and Lee S. Crandall, Zoologica, Scientific Contributions of the New York Zoologi- 

 cal Society. Vol. I. No. 7, pp. 1.53-156, with colored plate, December 5. 1911. 



2 Report of the Chief of the Bureau of Biological Survey for 1911. By Henry W. 

 Henshaw. Annual Reports of the Department of Agriculture 1911, pp. 1-20. 



3 Captain Cartwright | and his | Labrador Journal 1 edited by | Charles "Wendell 

 Townsend, M. D. 1 Author of "Along the Labrador Coast," "A Labrador 1 

 Spring," "The Birds of Essex County" and joint | author of "Birds of Labrador | 

 with an Introduction by | Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell | Illustrations from Old En- 

 gravings, Photographs, | and a Map. i vignette 1 Boston | Dana Estes & Company 1 

 Publishers | 1911. 8vo., pp. i-xxxiii + 1-385. 



