Vol i90? IV ] Recent Literature. 233 



United States. These are the species that have shown the most marked 

 decrease in recent years, and which, therefore, stand most in need of 

 protection. This investigation was undertaken for the purpose of furnish- 

 ing information as to present ranges, relative abundance, and migration, 

 with reference to practical legislation. The first part of this valuable 

 report is devoted to a consideration of the extent and causes of the recent 

 decrease in numbers of these useful birds, and the suggestion of measures 

 for their better protection. The absolute prohibition of spring shooting 

 in every part of the country is strongly urged as necessary for the preserva- 

 tion of these species for the benefit of future generations. Then follows 

 a list of species that winter principally in the United States, and a list 

 of those that winter both in the United States and Canada. It is stated 

 that 54 species regularly visit the United States during some portion of the 

 year. 



Following this preliminary matter, the species are taken up in systematic 

 sequence, with reference to their breeding ranges, their winter ranges, 

 their seasons and routes of migration. The basis for determining the ranges 

 consists of published records, data derived from museum specimens, and 

 the unpublished notes of the field agents of the Biological Survey. "The 

 data on migration are derived almost entirely from the migration schedules 

 contributed since 1884 to this Bureau by hundreds of observers distributed 

 throughout the United States and Canada." It thus follows that a vast 

 amount of hitherto unpublished information on the ranges and migrations 

 of the Anatidse is here for the first time available. The paper is thus, 

 aside from its great economic importance, a valuable contribution to 

 ornithology. — J. A. A. 



Ward's 'Notes on the Herring Gull and the Caspian Tern.' » — This is 

 an account of two visits (in 1905 and 1906) to a large breeding colony of 

 Herring Gulls and Caspian Terns at Gravel Island, at the northern end of 

 Door County peninsula, Wisconsin, and contains many interesting ob- 

 servations on the manner of nesting and other matters connected with 

 the home life of these species. The first season many young gulls were 

 found dead on the beach, and the cause of their death was not easy to 

 explain. On the second visit it was found that the old birds deliberately 

 maltreated certain of the young birds, mortally wounding them. "The 

 habit of killing the young," he says, "appears to be fairly common," but 

 he is quite unable to account for such strange acts, which he repeatedly 

 witnessed. "I was quite unable to see," he adds, " that the victims of these 

 attacks were in any way abnormal, or that they had given any offense .... 

 Rapid movement seemed always to excite the adults and a running young 

 one was sure to be attacked by every adult near which it passed, but 



1 Notes on the Herring Gull and the Caspian Tern (Larus argentatus and Sterna 

 caspia). By Henry L. Ward. Bull. Wisconsin Nat. Hist. Soc, Vol. IV, No. 4, 

 October, 1906, pp. 113-134, with 2 plates. 



