﻿Book News and Reviews 



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group of birds, but, to be sure, this would 

 have been a rude shock to the systematists 

 who only look for differences and name 

 them all ! ' Unpublished Letters of Audubon 

 and Baird, ' by R. Deane, are pleasant read- 

 ing, being filled with ornithological topics 

 of the day. Incidentally, the clumsiness of 

 the duodecimal system is well illustrated. 



An important paper by F. W. Carpen- 

 ter on ' An Astronomical Determination of 

 the Heights of Birds during Nocturnal 

 Migration,' shows that these heights are 

 not as great as was estimated by earlier 

 observers. He gives the credit of modern 

 experiments to Prof. J. Stebbins, of the 

 University of Illinois. 



A new form of Petrel (Oceanodroma 

 monorhis chapmani) from California, is de- 

 scribed by Von Berlepsch, while J. Grinnell 

 offsets this addition by discrediting the 

 validity of the San Francisco Titmouse. A 

 bird new to the North American Check-List, 

 the Gray-breasted Martin ( Progne chalybea) 

 is added by W. De W. Miller, and other 

 records of value may be found among the 

 general notes. — J. D., Jr. 



Journal of the Maine Ornithological 

 Society. — In the December, 1905, number 

 the leading articles are 'The Ducks of 

 Merrymeeting Bay,' by F. T. Noble, and 

 'Contributions to the Life History of the 

 Myrtle Warbler,' by O. W. Knight. The 

 March, 1906, number contains the proceed- 

 ings of the Tenth Annual Meeting of the 

 Society, which indicate the prosperous and 

 active condition of the organization. Other 

 articles are an account of the 'Nashville 

 Warbler in Maine,' by O. W. Knight, and 

 a series of Christmas 'Bird Census Reports.' 

 The usual valuable local notes complete the 

 number. 



The Wilson Bulletin. — The first num- 

 ber of Vol. XVIII contains an annotated 

 list of the birds of Scott County, Iowa, by 

 B. H. Wilson ; 'August at Lake Tahoe and 

 a Hammock List of Sparks Nevada,' by 

 Esther Craigmile, and ' November Aspects 

 in Spokane County, Washington ' by W. 

 L. Dawson. P. A. Taverner treats at 

 length of the status of the Yellow-breasted 



Chat as a Michigan bird, and gives an in- 

 teresting account of a young Flicker tagged 

 with an aluminum band on the tarsus, at 

 Keota, Iowa, in May, 1905, which was shot 

 at Sabine Parish, Louisiana, on Christmas 

 day. Mr. Taverner has had many other 

 young birds tagged in the same way and 

 looks with interest for information as to 

 their capture. — W. S. 



In the second number of The Ontario 

 Natural Science Bulletin (1906) is an article 

 by Dr. J. Dwight, Jr., on the ' Use and 

 Abuse of the Subspecies,' written chiefly 

 for those not already familiar with the sub- 

 species problem. The differences between 

 species and subspecies, the origin of sub- 

 species and the naming of them are the 

 questions discussed. 



Dr. Dwight believes that we should have 

 an exact and consistent vernacular as well 

 as technical nomenclature for subspecies. 

 For instance, the three geographical forms 

 of Merula migratoria, migratoria, pro- 

 pitKjiia and achrustera, should be known 

 respectively as the Northern American 

 Robin, the Western American Robin and 

 the Southern American Robin, and the 

 name American Robin, now used exclusively 

 for the northern form, should be applied to 

 the species as a whole. This is a matter 

 which should be given consideration by the 

 revisers of the A. O. U. Check-list. 



In concluding, Dr. Dwight states "there 

 are * two abuses of the trinomial 



that greatly detract from its value: one is 

 naming at sight every variation, and the 

 other is, naming races the variations within 

 which are considerably overlapped by adja- 

 cent races already described. As an ex- 

 ample of the first-mentioned abuse, we have 

 some of the pallid or desert races that bleach 

 in the sun for a season, although the new 

 plumage is as dark as that of birds of 

 humid areas. " 



As an example of the second abuse, the 

 finely divided eastern races of the Downy 

 Woodpecker and the Maryland Yellow- 

 throat are cited, and Dr. Dwight argues 

 that naming intermediate races simply 

 results in a " horde of new intermediates." 

 W. DeW. M. 



