September 23, 1892.J 



SCIENCE. 



179 



was made of general summaries of the progress of science. Within 

 the past lew years these have been discontinued, and there is a 

 return to the old plan of placing in an appendix papers having 

 special value. Further, since the National Museum has fairly 

 begun its work, the annual report has been swelled far beyond the 

 compass of one, and so is now issued in two volumes. One of 

 these is devoted to the Smithsonian, and the other to the Museum. 

 The annual reports and other publications of the Bureau of Eth- 

 nology will not be considered here. 



The second series of publications of the Smithsonian is the 

 " Miscellaneous Collections." In this are given papers which are 

 the results of original investigation, and which are too long to be 

 included in the annual reports. The volumes are in octavo form, 

 and some of them, like Gray's " Synoptical Flora of North Amer- 

 ica," contain from 900 to 1,000 pages. There are now about 35 

 volumes in this series. The third series, " Contributions to 

 Knowledge," is in quarto form, and includes many elaborate and 

 finely illustrated monographs. Among them are Squier and 

 Davis's " Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," Wood's 

 "Fresh-Water Algae," etc. There are about 25 volumes in this 

 series. 



Of the publications relating to the work of the U. S. National 

 Museum, the annual reports have already been referred to. Pa- 

 pers in these admit of considerable elaboration, but are not con- 

 sidered extensive enough to be published in separate form except 

 as excerpts, which is the case with the second of the books given 

 in our title. When it became apparent that the results of the 

 work of the curators of the Museum would be too long delayed if 

 issued in the annual reports, the "Proceedings" of the Museum 

 was established. This contains advance notices of work, with 

 preliminary descriptions and short notes, which could find no place 

 in other series of the Institution. It is now in its fifteenth vol- 

 ume, but it is published in so small an edition that it is only rarely 

 seen outside of public libraries. Excerpts from it, however, are 

 frequently distributed to specialists. In 1875, previous to the 

 establishment of the " Proceedings," there began to appear a series 

 under the name of " Bulletins." These are octavo in form, and 

 consist of long and elaborate monographs of various orders, or 

 catalogues of birds, beasts, or plants. There are now some 39 of 

 these Bulletins. 



Finally, a new series of " Special Bulletins " in quarto form has 

 been begun. Of this series, the volume which forms the first por- 

 tion of our title is No. 1. The author, Capt. Bendire, is the curator 

 of oology in the museum, and he gives in the volume descriptions 

 of the breeding habits of gallinaceous birds, (partridges, grouse, 

 etc.), pigeons, doves, and birds of prey. The nomenclature fol- 

 lowed is that of the American Ornithologists" Union Check-list. 

 There is no attempt at synonomy, only the original and the latest 

 name being given. The geographical range for each is also given. 

 In the text there is no description of the bird itself, but the breed- 

 ing habits, food, nest, and eggs are all fully described. This in- 

 formation has been derived from original notes, from private 

 correspondence, and from published statements. Many interest- 

 ing facts are given, and a few extracts will serve to show the rich 

 store it contains. The following account of the dance of the 

 prairie sharp-tailed grouse of Manitoba is quoted from the unpub- 

 lished notes of Mr. E. E. Thompson: — 



"After the disappearance of the snow, and the coming of warm 

 weather, the chickens meet every morning at gray dawn, in 

 companies of from six to twenty, on some selected hillock or knoll, 

 and indulge in what is called a ' dance.' This performance I have 

 often watched, and it presents the most amusing spectacle I have 

 yet witnessed in bird life. At first the birds may be seen standing 

 about in ordinary attitudes, when suddenly one of them lowers 

 its head, spreads out its wings nearly horizontally and its tail 

 perpendicularly, distends its air sacs, and erects its feathers, then 

 rushes across the ' floor,' taking the shortest of steps, but stamping 

 its feet so hard and rapidly that the sound is like that of a kettle- 

 drum; at the same time it utters a sort of bubbling crow, which 

 seems to come from the air-sacs, beats the air with its wings and 

 vibrates its tail, so that it produces a loud, rustling noise, and thus 

 contrives at once to make as extraordinary a spectacle of itself as 

 possible. As soon as one commences, aU join in, rattling, stamp- 



ing, drumming, crowing, and dancing together furiously ; louder 

 and louder the noise, faster and faster the dance becomes, until 

 at last, as they madly whirl about, the birds leap over each other 

 in their excitement. After a brief spell the energy of the dancers 

 begins to abate, and shortly afterward they cease, and stand or 

 move about very quietly, until they are again started by one of 

 their number leading off. . . . The space occupied by the dancers 

 is from 50 to 100 feet across, and, as it is returned to year after 

 year, the grass is usually worn off, and the ground trampled down 

 hard and smooth. The 'dancing' is indulged in at any time of 

 the morning or evening in May, but it is usually at its height be- 

 fore sunrise. . . . When the birds are disturbed on the hill, they 

 immediately take wing and scatter, uttering as they rise their 

 ordinary alarm note, a peculiar vibrating ' cack, cack, cack.' This 

 is almost always uttered simultaneously with the beating of the 

 wings, and so rarely, except under these circumstances, that at 

 first I supposed it was caused by the wings alone, but since then 

 I have heard the sound both when the birds were sailing and 

 when they were on the ground, besides seeing them fly off si- 

 lently." 



One of the dangers of egg-hunting in the western wilds is given 

 in an account of the zone-tailed hawk. One day, while riding up 

 Rillitto Creek, in Arizona. Capt. Bendire observed one of these 

 birds fly from' its nest, and he determined to examine it. ' ' Climb- 

 ing to the nest," he says, " I found another egg, and at the same 

 instant saw from my elevated position something else which could 

 not have been observed from the ground, namely, several Apach6 

 Indians crouched down on the side of a little canon which opened 

 into a creek bed about eighty yards further up. They were evi- 

 dently watching me, their heads being raised just to a level with 

 the top of the caiion. In those days (1873) Apache Indians were 

 not the most desirable neighbors, especially when one was up a 

 tree and unarmed. I therefore descended as leisurely as possible, 

 knowing that if I showed any especial haste in getting do^vn they 

 would suspect me of having seen them ; the egg I had placed in 

 my mouth as the quickest and safest way that I could think of 

 disposing of it, — and rather an uncomfortably large mouthful it 

 was, too, — nevertheless, I reached the ground safely, and, with 

 my horse and shot-gun, lost no time in getting to high and open 

 ground. ... I found it no easy matter to remove the egg from 

 my mouth without injury, but I finally succeeded, though my 

 jaws ached for some time afterward." 



The author puts in a number of good words for the much-abused 

 owls, considering that, as a rule, they are more useful to the 

 farmer and poultry-raiser than harmful. This is especially the 

 case with the barn owl, bai'red owl, screech owl, and burrowing 

 owl. The great horned owl, on the contrary, is destructive, and 

 merits the condemnation generally accorded it. Domestic fowls 

 and game birds are killed by it in quantities, besides which it 

 feeds upon various mammals, such as rabbits, squirrels, skunks, 

 muskrats, etc. The account given of the burrowing owl disposes 

 of the story that the bird lives in harmony with the prairie-dog 

 and the rattlesnake, and the following extracts are thought to be of 

 interest sufficient to quote : — 



"A good deal of nonsense has found its way into print about 

 the life-history of this owl; and the sentimental story of its living 

 in perfect harmony with prairie-dogs and rattlesnakes, both of 

 which inhabit a considerable portion of the range occupied by 

 these owls, was for years accepted as true, and furnished the 

 ground-work for many an interesting tale. . . . From an extended 

 acquaintance with the habits of the burrowing owl, lasting through 

 a number of years' service in the West, I can most positively 

 assert, from personal experience and investigation, that there is 

 no foundation based on actual facts for the-^e stories, and that no 

 such happy families exist in reality. I am fully convinced that 

 the burrowing owl, small as it is, is more than a match for the 

 avei-age prairie dog, and the rattlesnake as well; it is by no means 

 the peaceful and spiritless bird that it is generally believed to be, 

 and it subsists, to some extent, at least, on the young dogs, if not 

 also on the old ones. 



"In Washington, Idaho, and Oregon they appear to migrate 

 about the beginning of November, and sometimes earlier, return- 

 ing to their summer homes in the early part of March. At any 



