THE OOLOGIST 



228 



mounted. It is surely unusual to find 

 this species in that territory. 



Albino Catbird's Eggs. 

 Roscoe I. Giles, of Marlborough, 

 Mass., together with his father who 

 is a taxidermist, collected this past 

 season at their home a set of four 

 eggs of the Catbird, which are pure 

 white. This is certainly a rare find. 

 We have never known of this species 

 laying albino eggs before. 



Kingfisher, (Ceryle Alcyon.) 



In my daily walks along the 

 Brandywine to the office during the 

 summer I noticed four or five King- 

 fishers diving in the water. 



At first I paid little attention to 

 them, as I knew that was the usual 

 way for them to feed. One day 1 saw 

 that their actions were unusual, so 

 I watched them a long while. The 

 old birds were teaching the young the 

 "modus operandi" of catching fish. 



One of the old birds would dive 

 from a high limb into the water and 

 fly back again as an example for the 

 young. Then a young Kingfisher 

 would plunge in, come up about a 

 foot above the water and repeat the 

 performance several times, until he 

 was so tired out he could hardly 

 reach a low limb. 



The young birds were kept at this 

 for many days, no doubt adding to 

 their knowledge as time passed. 



No doubt the young birds consid- 

 ered this great sport to dive into the 

 water as they repeated the perform- 

 ance several times while I was pass- 

 ing along. More practical knowledge 

 would come to them later and then 

 they could look out for themselves. 



E. J. Darlington. 

 Wilmington, Del. 



Books Received. 

 Home Life of the Osprey: 



, This is one of the best if not the 

 best of the series so far published 

 delineating the home life of certain 

 birds, and is a companion book to 

 The Home Life of the Golden Eagle 

 and The Home Life of the Spoonbill. 

 The present volume by Clinton G. Ab- 

 bott is entertainingly written, me- 

 chanically well prepared and contains 

 thirty-two full page photographic 

 plates, artistically mounted and is 

 without doubt one of the very best 

 books on the subject ever published. 



It is net only valuable from a scien- 

 tific standpoint, but likewise from the 

 booklovers' standpoint, as well as 

 that of the everyday nature lover. 



The American distributors of this 

 work are Brentano's, 229 Fifth Ave., 

 Sew York City, and the price is $2.00. 



New England Trees in Winter, 

 Bulletin 69, Storr's Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station, Storr's, Connecti- 

 cut. 



One of the very best forestry pub- 

 lications that has come to our desk 

 in a long time, and many of them 

 come, is the above publication by 

 our friends, A. F. Blakesly and C. B. 

 Jarvis. It is a review of the common 

 timber of the New England states, 

 lavishly illustrated by high-class half- 

 tones and apparently thoroughly 

 scientific. A better key to the trees 

 of any locality we have seldom, if 

 ever, seen. 



Bird Stories from Burroughs. This 

 little volume is composed of excerpts 

 of sketches of bird life taken from 

 the works of John Burroughs with 

 numerous illustrations by Lewis Agas- 

 siz Fuertes, some of them in colors. 

 It is a well written, typical Bur- 

 roughs' book, containing stories re- 

 lating to such birds as the Bluebird, 

 Robin, Flicker, Cowbird, Chipping 

 Sparrow, Brown Thrush, House Wren. 



