Book News and Reviews 



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tive of a South American bird, which fits 

 better with its habits than to associate it 

 with our highly migratory Plovers. 

 Loomis has a paper on a matter of Petrel 

 nomenclature. Palmer chronicles the 

 thirty-seventh meeting of the A. O. U. 



In general notes there is the usual variety 

 of unusual occurrences: S. C. Arthur 

 reports that a captive Blue-winged Teal, 

 with the white marking characteristic of 

 the recently described southern race, 

 after a time lost this marking by moult. 

 Miller and Griscom refer to Mourning 

 Doves breeding in southwestern Maine, 

 supposed to be Wild Pigeon; an old pigeon- 

 hunter, in fact, did not credit their identi- 

 fication of these birds as Doves. R. 

 Latham recounts an instance of Chimney 

 Swifts resting in a heavy growth of brush; 

 one was seen eating elder-berries, but, in 

 his opinion this was merely incidental, 

 the spot being used as a roost. W. L. 

 McAtee presents evidence of birds being 

 diverted from depredations on fruit by 

 abundance of periodical cicadas on which 

 they were feeding. — J. T. N. 



The Condor. — Of the eight general 

 papers in the January number of The 

 Condor, Mrs. Bailey's 'Return to the 

 Dakota Lake Region' and Henshaw's 

 'Autobiographical Notes' are continua- 

 tions of articles in the previous volume. 

 The present chapter of the biography 

 is especially interesting since it reviews 

 Henshaw's active field-work in Colorado, 

 Arizona, and California, and his early 

 acquaintance with Baird, Bendire, Mer- 

 riam, and Nelson. A brief sketch of 

 'Edward Garner, a Pioneer Naturalist,' 

 taxidermist of Quincy, Plumas County, 

 Calif., is contributed by H. C. Bryant, 

 who states that Garner's collection of birds 

 was exhibited at the Panama - Pacific 

 Exposition in 191 5 and is now deposited 

 in the Quincy High School. Eight of the 

 specimens which form the basis of impor- 

 tant local records are specially mentioned. 



The 'Importance of the Blind in Bird 

 Photography,' illustrated by six figures, 

 is discussed by Frank N. Irving, who gives 

 directions for the use of beginners in this 

 branch of field-work. An account of the 

 'Rusty Song Sparrow in Berkeley and the 

 Return of Winter Birds' is given by Mrs. 

 Amelia S. Allen. A Yakutat Fox Sparrow, 

 which had been banded, left on April 21, 

 evidently to spend the summer in Alaska, 

 but returned to the same spot in Berkeley 

 on November 3, thus furnishing another 

 interesting record of the habit of certain 

 birds to return to the same place after a 

 long migration. 'A Peculiar Feeding 

 Habit of Grebes,' is described by Wetmore 

 who has found quantities of feathers in 

 the stomachs of these birds. He suggests 

 that the habit of swallowing feathers is 

 developed mainly in species which feed 

 on fish, and that the feathers "act as 

 strainers that prevent the passage of 

 bones and scales into the intestine until 

 they have been properly digested." 



In 'Notes on the Limicolae of Southern 

 British Columbia,' Allan Brooks lists 

 38 species that have been recorded from 

 this region and makes a plea for more 

 attention to this group of birds, which 

 promises much in advancing our present 

 knowledge of the distribution and migra- 

 tion of several species. A 'Description of 

 a New Otocoris from California' is given 

 by H. C. Oberholser, who bases the new 

 form (Otocoris alpestris sierra) on a speci- 

 men collected by A. S. Bunnell, June 13, 

 1906, at the head of Pine Creek in Lassen 

 County. 



Among the brief notes are four remark- 

 able records of Clark's Nutcracker show- 

 ing the occurrence in 1919 of this moun- 

 tain-loving species near Indio, below sea- 

 level on the Colorado Desert, in October, 

 on board a steamer at sea between Los 

 Angeles and San Francisco in September, 

 and at Carmel and Point Pinos, in Mont- 

 erey County, in November. — T. S. P. 



