The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



IVoL. XXXVI 



Many such men as Drury, all through the ages, 

 have lived and died without leaving any per- 

 manent memorials. The favorable circumstances 

 in Drury's case were especially the organization 

 of zoological and botanical knowledge led by 

 Linnaeus, combined with the penetration of nearly 

 every part of the world by British commerce. 

 It was possible to come by the materials for 

 greatly enlarging our knowledge of insects and a 

 method had been devised for conveniently record- 

 ing discoveries. Drury, taking advantage of 

 these conditions, was able to make important 

 and permanent contributions to the science he 



loved so much." 



Prof. Cockerell in the beginning of his account 

 refers to the correspondence which Drury had 

 with prominent zoologists of his day and to the 

 fact that his letters were copied in a large book. 

 Recently, Prof. Cockerell, while at Funchal, 

 Madeira, was greatly interested to find this 

 letter-book in the possession of Mr. C. O. L. 

 Power, and, borrowing it for a few days, he ob- 

 tained copies of a number of the more interesting 

 letters and thirty quotations from these appear 

 in the article. 



A. G. 



REVIEW 



The Auk, Vol. XXXVIII, 1921, contains the 

 following articles of particular interest to Canadian 

 ornithologists : — 

 No. 1, January: — 



A Nesting of the Philadelphia Vireo. By 

 Harrison Lewis. Pp. 26-44., continued in the 

 succeeding April number on pp. 185-202. 



This is an intensive daily account of the nest- 

 ing of a pair of Philadelphia Vireos, at Bergerville, 

 in the immediate neighborhood of Quebec city, 

 covering the time when the nest was being 

 built, June 12, to when the young left, July 14. 

 Not only does it make another record in the dis- 

 tribution of this rather rare and slightly known 

 Vireo but it is a most excellent demonstration of 

 observation methods in the study of life histories, 

 and shows that whilst the shot-gun may be 

 absolutely necessary in some fields of ornithological 

 investigation there are other valuable lines of 

 work that can be followed bloodlessly. This is 

 nearly a complete field-study of the nesting of 

 this species. The number of American species 

 that this has been accomplished with is pitiably 

 small and is suggestive of the immense amount of 

 work that yet needs to be performed. An im- 

 portant fact to be emphasized in connection with 

 it is that it can be done without special facilities 

 and training other than a certain amount of 

 patience and careful and discriminating observa- 

 tion. Species await the student almost at our 

 back doors. 



Further Notes and Observations on the 

 Birds of Hatley, Stanstead County, Quebec, 1919. 

 By H. Mousley. Pp. 51-59. 



The paper opens with an introduction des- 

 cribing the special features of the season under 

 discussion and ends with annotations on seven 

 species added to the lists previously published by 

 the author from his locality, bringing them up to 

 175 species. The most important of these is the 

 Black Rail, an eyesight record but accomplished 



with details that go far towards making it con- 

 vincing. The others are all more or less expected. 



Notes on North American Birds, X, By Harry 

 C. Oberholser. Pp. 79-82. 



This is a technical paper. Holboell's Grebe 

 is declared to be a subspecies of the European and 

 west Asian Colymbus grisegena. It is removed to 

 another genus and called Pedetaithya greisgena 

 major (Temmink & Schlegel). Should any of our 

 readers ever see this strange name wandering 

 across a page they may recognize in it our old 

 friend Colymbus holboelli. He supports the 

 specific distinctness of the American Bittern from 

 the European bird, and will not follow Hartert's 

 claim that it gives but subspecific rank. He 

 unites the Little Brown and the Sandhill Cranes 

 with only subspecific distinction on the ground 

 that size, the only difference between them, inter- 

 graduates. Under this conclusion the Little 

 Brown Crane would become Grus canadensis 

 mexicana. Wilson's Snipe he regards as only 

 subspecifically distinct from the Old World Jack 

 Snipe and calls it Gallinago gallinago delicata. 

 The present reviewer is not in a position at pre- 

 sent writing to question any of these proposals 

 and whether they can stand or not can only be 

 determined by the careful examination of material. 



The Geographic Races of Cyanocitta cristata. 

 By Harry C. Oberholser. Pp. 83-89. 



In this, Mr. Oberholser divides our old friend 

 the Blue Jay into northern and southern races. 

 The type form he restricts to the southern and 

 southeastern States. The northern race, in- 

 cluding all Canadian specimens, is named Cya- 

 nocitta cristata bromia. The differences are those 

 of size, in which extremes overlap, and color. 

 Bromia is the larger, less purplish in the blue of 

 the upper parts, and larger white tips to greater 

 coverts, tertials, secondaries and retrices. 



In the report of the Thirty-eighth Annual 

 Meeting of the American Ornithologists Union, 



