2^oofe Ji^eUjs! anb ItebieliDBi 



Birds in Town and Village. By W'. H. 



Hudson. E. P. Dutton, New York. 1920. 



i2mo, 323 pages, 8 colored plates. 

 Adventures Among Birds. By W. H. 



Hudson. E. P. Dutton, New York. 1920. 



319 pages, 27 line cuts from Bewick. 



'Birds in a Village,' Mr. Hudson's first 

 book on British birds after removing from 

 x\rgentina to England, was published in 

 1893. The larger part of it, revised or re- 

 written, appears in this volume with the 

 addition of six essays on -'Birds in a Cornish 

 Village.' The colored plates, by E. J. 

 Detmold, are decorative and pleasing, but 

 do not appear to be portraits from life, 

 though that of the Nightingale should 

 please both artists and ornithologists. Mr. 

 Hudson's observations are of actual refer- 

 ence value, but the publishers fail to 

 supply an index to make them available. 



The second volume mentioned above is 

 made up of a collection of contributions to 

 various English magazines. The author 

 apologizes for its somewhat misleading title 

 and offers as a substitute 'The Adventures 

 of a Soul, Sensitive or Not, among the 

 Feathered Masterpieces of Creation,' but 

 why 'feathered?' one may ask. Both books 

 ring with their author's inherent love of 

 birds, a love to which, fortunately, he can 

 give adequate expression. It is the genuine- 

 ness of this love, rather than any attempt 

 at fine writing and the airing of high-flown 

 sentiment which gives charm to his work. 

 'Adventures Among Birds,' we are glad to 

 say, has an excellent index. — F. M. C. 



The Ornithological Magazines 

 The Auk. — In the April number of The 

 Auk, D wight presents some results of pains- 

 taking study of plumage change in relation 

 to age in Gulls, using the Bonaparte's and 

 Herring Gulls as examples. He finds "that 

 the smaller Gulls attain full adult plumage 

 at their first postnuptial or annual molt, 

 which is at the beginning of their second 

 year; medium-sized Gulls, at the beginning 

 of their third; and large Gulls at the begin- 

 ning of their fourth year." This is the 



normal condition; there is a certain per- 

 centage of laggards whose age is difficult 

 to determine and which confuse interpre- 

 tation of specimens. The various species 

 of Gulls are thus divided into three groups 

 having, respectively, a two-year, three- 

 year, and four-year plumage-cycle. The 

 Bonaparte's, Laughing, and Kittiwake 

 Gulls belong to the first group; the Ring- 

 billed to the second group; the Herring, 

 Western, Great Black-backed and Glau- 

 cous to the third. Dr. Dwight's paper is 

 beautifully illustrated with half-tone re- 

 productions of the wing and tail patterns 

 of different ages of Bonaparte's and Her- 

 ring Gulls. 



Wetmore describes Lake Burford, New 

 Mexico, and presents a first installment of 

 habit-studies from that locality. Detailed 

 descriptions of mating-displays of Grebes 

 and Ducks are given. "Though a fair 

 number of breeding individuals of various 

 Ducks inhabit Lake Burford in summer, it 

 seems, from observation, that in addition 

 many drakes come there to molt and spend 

 the summer after their duties of reproduc- 

 tion are completed," with the exception of 

 the Ruddy Duck, "as the drake of that 

 species, like the male Canada Goose, usu- 

 ally remains true to his spouse during in- 

 cubation and the rearing of the young." 

 Perhaps from late development of suitable 

 feed in the lake, the breeding season was 

 delayed there. "The occurrence of the 

 Lesser Scaup Duck at Lake Burford was 

 of especial interest as, though the birds 

 were present in fair numbers and evidently 

 mated, they were not breeding." 



'Extracts from Notes made while in 

 Naval Service' by W. T. Helmuth, brings 

 together many fragmentary observations. 

 It is so comparatively seldom that an 

 ornithologist has opportunity to observe 

 at sea, that notes there made are very use- 

 ful in piecing out what we know of habits 

 and occurrence of seabirds and trans- 

 ocean migrations and wanderings of land 

 birds. 



(174) 



