322 Recent Literature. \ju\y 



has nevertheless been accepted as the name of the form of which saltonis 

 may perhaps be regarded as the extreme manifestation. In the opinion 

 of the A. O. U. Committee there is not room nor good reason for admitting 

 two forms of the pallid phase of the Song Sparrow. It unfortunately 

 happens that this is another of the many cases where the type of a form is 

 unsatisfactory, being more or less intermediate between two forms which 

 are sufficiently differentiated in their respective areas of full development. 

 To make such an unfortunate circumstance the basis or excuse for another 

 ' split' seems hardly the wisest way to deal with such cases. — • J. A. A. 



Widmann on 'The Summer Birds of Shaw's Garden.' — Shaw's Garden, 1 

 or the Missouri Botanical Garden, at St. Louis, Mo., is the summer home of 

 forty species of birds, while six others are here recorded as "more or less 

 regular visitors from nearby breeding grounds." It is believed that several 

 others would nest within the Garden if suitable nesting-boxes were provided 

 for them, and suggestions are made for their arrangement in a way to render 

 them undesirable to the House Sparrows. 



Of many species of European songbirds introduced into St. Louis about 

 1870, only two seem to have secured a permanent foothold. Thesft are the 

 House Sparrow and the European Tree Sparrow. The former soon became 

 abundant at St. Louis, as elsewhere; the latter has been able to maintain 

 its foothold in various parts of the city, Shaw's Garden having "always 

 been, and still is, one of the few places where the Tree Sparrow has found 

 refuge and succeeds in rearing a few broods." The difference between 

 the two species, in habits and temperament as well as in size and markings, 

 are pointed out, and further emphasized by an excellent colored plate 

 representing both species. The Tree Sparrow has suffered from the tyr- 

 anny and persecution of its larger, more pugnacious and more prolific 

 fellow-countryman, the House Sparrow, a plea for the repression of which 

 and for the encouragement of the Tree Sparrow is here made. St. Louis 

 and vicinity, says Mr. Widmann, is the only place in America where the 

 Tree Sparrow occurs. 



In his pleasant comment on the status and traits of the various species 

 of summer birds in the Garden, he states that "the number of Blue Jays and 

 Bronzed Grackles should always be kept limited to a very few pairs during 

 the breeding time," owing to their depredations upon the eggs and nestlings 

 of the smaller birds. — J. A. A. 



Cole on ' The Crow as a Menace to Poultry Raising.' 2 — The economic rela- 

 tion of the Crow to agriculture is still an unsettled question, not so much 

 in reference to its direct attacks upon farm crops and poultry, which are 



1 Summer Birds of Shaw's Garden. By Otto Widmann. 20th Ann. Rep. Mis- 

 souri Botanical Garden, pp. 41-80, pi. i, colored. 



2 The Crow a Menace to Poultry Raising-. By Leon J. Cole. 21st Ann. Rep. 

 Rhode Island Agric. Experiment Station, pp. 312-316, January, 1909. 



