1911 J Recent Literature. oho 



gether with the results of an investigation planned especially to bring out 

 all the facts in the case. The insinuation is made that results founded 

 upon stomach examination are essentially unreliable. The fact is that 

 this method was adopted and is maintained principally because of the 

 glaring insufficiency and incorrectness of field observations. It must be 

 remembered that, given a sufficient number of stomach contents, evenly 

 distributed chronologically and geographically, we have evidence, more 

 exact than is obtainable in any other way, of the usual subsistence and 

 hence of the economic significance of a species. The fact that a stomach 

 examination reveals the nature only of a single meal, is of no importance, 

 when a dozen or more stomachs are often collected in the same locality 

 at about the same time. 



Gamekeepers should not be too quick to disregard the findings of eco- 

 nomic ornithologists as to the value of hawks, owls and other birds, espe- 

 cially as some of their worst vermin, as rats, snakes, etc., are customary 

 food of these birds. t 



Mr. Huntington points out the availability of the grounds of many 

 established ducking clubs for the purpose of propagating game, and sug- 

 gests that the clubs take up the work both for their own welfare and the 

 preservation of game birds as a group. Suggestions as to the formation 

 of duck propagating clubs or syndicates are given, together with estimates 

 of expenses. 



A chapter entitled "The restoration of wild fowl" discusses the use of 

 decoys for luring wild birds to ponds, and the most judicious shooting of 

 the wild birds. It would bear more becomingly the title "The destruction 

 of wild fowl." Description of the methods of shooting followed on pre- 

 serves, so as not to drive away the ducks, nor impair the breeding nucleus, 

 forms the subject of another chapter. 



The diseases also of wild ducks are discussed and a letter on the subject 

 from the chief of the Bureau of Animal Industryshows that the great 

 Bear River, Utah, epidemic was coccidiosis, a result agreeing with those 

 reached in all previous scientific investigations of epidemics among ducks 

 in the United States. 



A special chapter on propagating wild geese gives the experience of Mr. 

 Whealton of Chincoteague Island, Va., and Mr. Warren R. Leach of 

 Iowa (?). The shorebirds are brief!}' mentioned as profiting by the prc- 

 tective measures employed on duck preserves. 



Mr. Huntington's share of the book closes with arguments for legislation 

 favorable to game farming, and with the text of a proposed law for breeders. 



An appendix contains accounts by Prof. W. W. Cooke of the distribu- 

 tion and migration of the principal game ducks. — W. L. M. 



Papers on Tick-eating Birds. — Dr. A. Fredholm publishes in Trini- 

 dad, 1 the observations 2 of Newstead on the natural enemies of ticks in 



i Proc. Agr. Soc. Trinidad, X. Part 7, July, 1910, pp. 258-263. 



2 Bull. Jamaica Dept, Agr., Vol. I, No. 3, April, 1910, pp. 161-165. 



