138 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXVI 



Lawrence) by Napoleon A. Comeau, 1909, there 

 is a reference on page 433 leading one to imagine 

 that the Palm Warbler had been met with on some 

 few occasions at Godbout. This is evidently an 

 error, the birds referred to without doubt being 

 the Yellow Palm Warbler (D. palmarum hypo- 

 chrysea). At all events they are treated as such 

 by Mr. Ridgway in his Birds of North and Middle 

 America, Vol. 2, 1902. — Henry Mousley, 



Note on Bronzed Crackles. — Mr. C. E. 

 Johnson (Vol. XXXVI, p. 60) speaks of Bronzed 

 Crackles picking up dead minnows in gull-fashion 

 from the surface of the water. Besides acting as 

 scavengers these birds sometimes capture living 

 fish. This I have seen them do in the Charles 

 River Basin in Boston ,and their prey was the 

 three-spined stickleback. See Auk, XXXVI, 1919, 

 p. 627.— Charles W. Townsend, M.D. 



Effect of Light on Color of Birds. — A 

 distinguished lawyer in Winnipeg persists in 

 declaring that last fall he saw amongst a large 

 flock of Red-winged Blackbirds several that were 

 "red-headed". I am convinced that Mr. L. L. 

 Snyder is right in his allusion to the "effect of 

 light that causes frequent reports of impossible 

 birds". I have suggested to the lawyer that he 

 saw some Brewer's Blackbirds illumined thus; 

 but no, he won't have it! — H. M. Speechly. 



Occurrence of the Rock Vole at Rossport, 

 Ontario. — During my stay at Rossport, Ontario, 



a little fishing village on the Canadian Pacific 

 Railway about fifty miles east of Nipigon, in the 

 latter part of June, 1911, the nights were devoted 

 to trapping for small mammals and I had the 

 satisfaction of taking a small number of Microtus 

 chrotorrhinus, mostly gravid females and young. 

 One specimen was taken in the sparsely wooded 

 country and after that I hunted for more favour- 

 able places and trapped on the railway enclosure 

 where there was a growth of grasses concealing 

 the runways of the vole. The Biological Survey, 

 Washington, writes me that this is several hundred 

 miles west of the nearest previous location. — W. 

 E. Saunders. 



Children Compete for Forestry Essay 

 Prize. — Scores of school children in every school 

 district of the Dominion are competing these days 

 in the national school essay competition on 

 Forestry and Tree Planting, inaugurated recently 

 by the Canadian Forestry Association. 



Questions as to the forest resources ot Canada, 

 the damage done by forest fires, what trees to 

 choose for planting and how to plant them are 

 being asked by g multitude of young people and 

 the resultant information is being applied to the 

 essay competition. Three substantial cash prizes 

 are being given in each province and the effect of 

 the national effort to stimulate juvenile interest in 

 the forest resources of the country and the multiple 

 benefits of tree planting has secured the hearty 

 endorsation of all the departments of education 

 which are giving every co-operation. 



BOOK REVIEW 



A Guide to The Poisonous Plants and Weed 

 Seeds of Canada and the Northern 

 United States. R. B. Thomson, B.A., 

 F.R.S.C., Associate Professor of Phanerogamic 

 Botany, University of Toronto, and H. B. 

 Sifton, M.A., Assistant Professor of Research 

 in Botany, University of Toronto. University 

 of Toronto Press, 1922, 8". 169 pages with 40 

 illustrations in the text. Price, $2.50. 



This very attractive book was primarily written 

 for the purpose of serving as a text-book for the 

 students of the Ontario Veterinary College. As 

 such it contains, in a brief, yet not unduly con- 

 centrated form, all available up-to-date knowledge 

 of the poisonous plants encountered in Canada and 

 the northern United States, including the charac- 

 teristics by which they may easily be recognized, 

 the symptoms produced by them, and the treat- 

 ment required to effect cures in cases of poisoning. 



In the treatment of their subject the authors 



have departed from the usual method followed in 

 most books and bulletins dealing with poisonous 

 plants. Instead of arranging the plants in one 

 long and, as a result, often confusing and tiresome 

 list in accordance with their botanical relationship 

 which hitherto has been a general practice, the 

 authors have divided the book into four main 

 sections dealing with the poisonous plants as 

 follows: 



I. Plants dangerous when included in hay 



and coarse feed. 

 II. Plants dangerous in pasture and on the 



range. 



III. Plants dangerous in ground feeds. 



IV. Poisonous plants which are rarely ob- 



served to cause death in animals. 



From this arrangement it is seen that the first 



three sections deal with the plants which are 



chiefly responsible for fatalities among farm 



animals; they are therefore of special interest to 



