^ook ji^etDs; antr Hebietus; 



Bird Behaviour, Psychical and Physio- 

 logical. By Frank Finn. Dodd, Mead 

 & Co., New York. lamo, x + 363 

 "pages; 44 half-tones. 



Here is a book which will interest and 

 inform both what we may call 'general- 

 ists' as well as specialists, while the latter 

 will find in it a mass of stimulating and 

 suggestive material. 



To his own extended observations on 

 birds in nature and in captivity, Mr. Finn 

 adds a wide knowledge of pertinent litera- 

 ture, and this he brings to bear on the 

 subjective consideration of various phases 

 of bird-life. 



Birds' means of locomotion, their food 

 and feeding-habits, their nests, eggs, and 

 young, their migrations, senses, voice, 

 relations with man, etc., are discussed 

 in a manner which, as we have said, will 

 hold the attention of the average reader 

 as well as appeal to the philosophic 

 naturalist. — F. M. C. 



Water-fowl and Their Food Plants 

 IN THE Sandhill Region of Nebraska. 

 Part I. Water-fowl in Nebraska. 

 By Harry C. Oberholser. Part II. 

 Wild Duck Foods of the Sandhill 

 Region of Nebraska. By W. L. 

 McAtee. Bull. No. 794, U. S. Dept. 

 of Agriculture, Washington, March 23, 

 1920. 8vo, 79 pages, i map. For sale 

 by Supt. of Documents, Washington, 

 D. C, price 15 cents. 



The farmer and ranchman, as well as 

 the sportsman, seem destined to be the 

 foe of wild fowl, and the former, in seek- 

 ing new areas for his crops and herds, 

 is possibly more destructive in the end 

 than the latter with his firearms. The 

 Biological Survey, in addition to its duties 

 in enforcing the Federal Laws for the 

 protection of migratory water-fowl, is 

 therefore conducting a study of the breed- 

 ing- as well as the wintering- and hunting- 

 grounds of these birds, and the present 

 paper is the first of a series it is proposed 

 to issue on this subject. 



Dr. Oberholser, who visited the region 

 in question in June and October, presents 



(235) 



a report on its general characters as a 

 home for wild fowl, on the increase in 

 the numbers of these birds since the 

 Federal Law has become effective, and a 

 fully annotated list of the fifty-six species 

 of water-birds known from the area under 

 consideration. 



Mr. McAtee gives a report on the plants 

 of the lakes, based on collections and obser- 

 vations of Ray Thompson, and notes 

 especially those which are of value as 

 food for wild Ducks. The combined results 

 of the labors of these two experts, with 

 those of their various cooperators, makes 

 a practical contribution to the subject 

 at issue which should have wide circulation. 



If for purposes of exact identification 

 it is deemed essential in papers of this 

 character to supplement the common with 

 a scientific name, why not use an available 

 system of nomenclature to which the 

 ordinary reader can refer with some hope 

 of securing the information of which he is 

 in search, rather than names which are 

 known only to professional ornithologists? 

 Intelligibility, rather technical up-to-date- 

 ness is assuredly the end in view, and this, 

 it seems to us, is to be gained by employing 

 a standard, if ancient, nomenclature rather 

 than one which, if the English name fails, 

 would certainly, in some instances, be of 

 no assistance to the most of the persons 

 for whom these valuable studies are made. 

 — F. M. C. 



Birds Observed on the Florida Keys 

 and the Southern End of the Main- 

 land OF Florida in 1919. By Paul 

 Bartsch. Year Book No. 18, for 1919, 

 of the Carnegie Institution of Wash- 

 ington; pages 205-210. 



While prosecuting his study of cerions 

 in the Florida Keys, Dr. Bartsch has found 

 time to make casual observations on birds, 

 and he here gives us his journal entries 

 for Dec. 28-31, 1918, Jan. 1-22, and May 

 2-19, 1919. Among the ninety-odd species 

 recorded are the Red-throated Loon, 

 Blue-faced and Blue-footed Boobies, Scis- 



