"i9ii J Recent Literature. 50o 



Evidence is accumulating that in the end will overthrow belief in the 

 efficiency of what has been called protective coloration in speculative 

 writings of the past 150 years. Like many other attractive theories that 

 of protective coloration has been unduly elaborated, and facts opposed to 

 it have been ignored. Those who have studied the food of birds, mammals, 

 reptiles, and other groups constantly have the impression forced upon them 

 that the so-called protective adaptations do not protect. Doctor Pearl's 

 results go to confirm the belief that we have been unable to avoid and have 

 often asserted that the influence of natural enemies taken as a whole, is 

 indiscriminate. In other words their food is obtained from the various 

 species they prey upon practically in proportion to the abundance of those 

 species in the state of nature. — W. L. M. 



Economic Ornithology in recent Entomological Publications. — 



In ' The hothouse milliped as a new genus ' l O. F. Cook says " Prussic 

 acid and other corrosive secretions may aid in the precipitation of colloidal 

 substances in the humus, in addition to the protection that they give by 

 rendering the millipeds distasteful to birds and other animals that might 

 otherwise feed upon them." This statement implies that millipeds have 

 no natural enemies, an Utopian condition probably no organism enjoys. 

 Millipeds are the chief food of certain beetle larvae, and are greatly relished 

 by toads. They are eaten by armadillos and skunks at least among 

 mammals and the brand of protection their secretions give them against 

 birds is not exactly what men would choose to insure comfort and peace 

 of mind. Records in the Biological Survey show that millipeds are eaten 

 by no fewer than 83 species of United States birds, 36 of which are known 

 to take considerable numbers of them. 



Walter E. Collinge begins a new series of economic publications in his 

 ' First Report on Economic Biology ' 2 and as usual includes references 

 to the food of various birds. Crane fly larvae, well known pests of root 

 and cereal crops, are recorded as doing serious injury to bulbs. The bird 

 enemies of these insects include the starling, lapwing, pheasant, various 

 gulls, and the rook. It is of particular interest that one of the shorebirds 

 should be assigned great economic value, as the whole group has recently 

 received that distinction in this country. Collinge says: " All the species 

 of crane flies have increased enormously with the decrease of the lapwing 

 and the same holds true with regard to wireworms and other soil pests." 



Mr. Collinge presents a summary of his investigation of the rook, which 

 has previously been reviewed, 3 and a note on the injurious budding of fruit 

 trees by bullfinches. The stomachs of 176 birds collected in April and May, 

 contained nothing but fruit buds, and there is evidence to indicate that 

 damage to young fruit continues through June and July. Aggressive 



i Proc. U. S. Nat, Mus., 40, 1911, p. 625. 



2 Birmingham, England. 1911, 78 pp. 



3 Auk, XXVII, No. 3, July, 1910, pp. 359, 360. 



