420 Recent Literature. \o^ 



and most important references. The work is thus condensed, yet suffi- 

 ciently comprehensive to meet the needs of the specialist and general 

 student, for whom the work is particularly designed. If the succeeding 

 bird parts conform to the present standard it will be of the utmost 

 service, and deserve the wide support we heartily wish it. — J. A. A. 



Mearns on the ' Ornithological Vocabulary of the Moki Indians.' ' — In 

 this paper the Moki names are given for most of the birds found in the 

 Moki country in Arizona, some two hundred or more in number. The 

 list was prepared with the aid of Dr. Mearns's "venerable friend 

 Ongwischey (Raven)," an intelligent Indian who took interest in the 

 work. A brief account of the Moki people and their country- precedes 

 the vocabulary of bird names. In addition to the names there are 

 annotations here and there of much ornithological interest, but the 

 paper is mainly of value to the anthropologist. — J. A. A. 



Papers on Economic Ornithology. — Mr. Sylvester D. Judd's paper 

 entitled 'Methods in Economic Ornithologj', with special reference to the 

 Catbird''' is of special interest, aside from its bearing on Economic 

 Ornithology, from the fact that insects supposed to be distasteful to birds 

 on account of their nauseous odors or more or less acrid secretions, do not 

 in fact prove to be so, and are thus not secure from the attacks of birds by 

 these supposed ' protective ' qualities, as so many writers on ' protective 

 mimicry ' have assumed. Thus Mr. Judd has found that 9 out of 13 

 Catbirds taken in a little gully near Washington, on July 30, 1895, where 

 ripe elderberries and blackberries were abundant, had partaken liberally 

 " of the destructive locust beetle, 18 of these orange and black pests having 

 been taken from one bird. This is surprising, because beetles of this 

 family (Chrysomellidce) secrete a substance which is supposed to be dis- 

 tasteful to birds. ... In the insect food of these birds there were no ants 

 or grasshoppers, but, on the other hand, the supposedly distasteful locust 

 leaf mining beetles." Again, in his experiments with live birds kept in a 

 cage for the purpose of studying their food preferences, Mr. Judd found 

 that "Stink bugs (Pentatomidse), whose nauseating odor is familiar to 

 every one who has been berrying, were eaten by the Catbirds, even when . 

 they had been well fed with other food." He says further : " Bad smelling 

 beetles (Carabidte), which have been supposed to develop their stench to 

 protect them from birds, were snatched as soon as they wei^e put on the 

 cork " (a floating cork island in a large bowl of water, used to prevent the 

 insects escaping). That this preference was not due to confinement or 

 unnatural conditions is shown by the fact that "Beetles formed, in the 

 200 [wild] Catbird stomachs examined, the most important part of the 



' Amer. Anthropologist, Dec, 1896, pp. 391-403. 

 ^ American Naturalist, May, 1897, pp. 392-397. 



