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The Grouse and Wild Turkeys of the 

 United States, and Their Economic 

 Value. By Sylvester D. Judd. Bulletin 

 No 24, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. of 

 Agriculture. Washington 1905. 8vo. 55 

 pages, 2 plates. 



This admirable paper treats briefly of the 

 general habits and value as game of our 

 larger gallinaceous birds, and at length of 

 their economic status as revealed by a study 

 of their food. Suggestions are also presented 

 in regard to artificial propagation as a means 

 of increasing the numbers of several species 

 whose existence has been threatened by the 

 combined attacks of the sportsman and 

 market hunter. 



The whole paper is a model of well-con- 

 ceived and well-directed research, and the 

 widespread interest in the birds with which 

 it deals makes it one of the most impor- 

 tant contributions to economic ornithology 

 issued by the Biological Survey. At the 

 same time it increases our regret for the 

 death of its talented young author. — F. M. 

 C. 



The Horned Larks and Their Relations 



to Agriculture. By W. L. McAtee. 



Bulletin No. 23, Biological Survey, U. S. 



Dept. of Agriculture. Washington, 1905. 



8vo. 33 pages, two plates, numerous text 



cuts. 



The complicated nature of economic orni- 

 thological problems are well illustrated by 

 this paper. 



It appears that in those portions of its 

 range where wheat is grown in large quanti- 

 ties the Horned Lark may at certain seasons 

 devour a large amount of grain. Undeniably 

 the bird is then injurious, but its accounts 

 with man should not be balanced on the basis 

 of a single entry. Here, then, appears the 

 economic ornithologist, who posts the debits 

 and credits not of a single month or local- 

 ity, but of a time and area sufficient to war- 

 rant generalizations. As a whole, 79.4 per 

 cent food of the Horned Larks of the United 

 States and Southern Canada consists of weed 

 seed; and Mr. McAtee concludes that the 

 services they render to agriculture are so in 



excess of the injury they occasion that they 

 deserve "protection at the hands of man." — 

 F. M. C. 



Bird Guide. Part II. Land Birds East 

 of the Rockies, From Parrots to 

 Bluebirds. By Chester A. Reed. Ob- 

 long 321110. 262 pages, numerous illus- 

 trations in color. C. K. Reed. 



In this attractive little volume Mr. Reed 

 has succeeded in storing a large amount of 

 information, together with colored figures 

 which should prove of great assistance in 

 identifying birds in life. Under each species 

 is given a brief statement of its principal 

 color, characters, haunts, song, nest and 

 eggs and range. The omission of the 

 authority for matter not based on personal 

 observation renders it impossible to de- 

 termine just what is original and what 

 is not, thereby decreasing the quotable value 

 of this very convenient pocket manual. 

 — F. M C. 



The Ornithological Magazines 

 The Auk. — Many will welcome in the 

 January number the appearance of a colored 

 plate. One by Mr. Fuertes portrays the 

 adult and young of Kumlien's Gull, a spe- 

 cies not figured before, and illustrates a 

 paper by J. Dwight, Jr., on the plumages 

 and molts of the several white-winged 

 species of Gull which are so arctic in dis- 

 tribution as to be rarely seen in our latitude. 

 The writer considers the Point Barrow 

 Gull and the Glaucous as practically indis- 

 tinguishable. Another technical paper is by 

 H. L. Clark, on 'The Feather Tracts of the 

 Swifts and Hummingbirds,' and his conclu- 

 sions are that both of these groups have 

 common ancestry, while the Goatsuckers 

 are otherwise related. 



Of more popular interest are the papers in 

 the present number which deal largely with 

 the birds of the southern tier of states. We 

 note the first instalment of a ' List of the 

 Birds of Louisiana,' by Beyer, Allison and 

 Kopman ; ' Notes on the Winter Birds of 

 Hancock county, Mississippi,' by A. Alii- 



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