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Bird - Lore 



rival male; we know of no female grouse 

 that hoots or drums. Even in such non- 

 technical writing, it would be better to be 

 accurate in the use of terms such as'species' 

 and 'variety,' which are confused through- 

 out; there are not, for instance, several 

 species of the White-crowned Sparrow, 

 nor is the Mountain Quail a variety of the 

 California Quail. In the promised second 

 booklet we would suggest the mention, at 

 least, of the A. O. U. names of the species 

 described. These are used in most cases 

 in the present one, but we know only from 

 the context that by 'Willow Grouse,' for 

 example, the British Columbians mean 

 their Rufed Grouse. The photographs are 

 excellent, some of them very lovely, but 

 the method of reproduction is far from 

 doing them justice. — C. H. R 



The Trail of the Indoor Outer. By 

 Raymond E. Manchester. The Col- 

 legiate Press, George Banta Publishing 

 Company, Menasha, Wisconsin. 1916. 

 47 pages. 



This is not a bird-book, nor even much 

 of a book on fishing, though its author is a 

 nature-lover in general, and a fisherman 

 in particular. It is merely thirty-odd 

 pages of the rambling, idle, happy thoughts 

 of one with the first touch of spring in his 

 blood, sitting comfortably before a fire and 

 indulging in memories — memories of the 

 big fish that got away, of a morning when 

 he watched the world, the world of lake 

 and forest, awaken, of his own bit of a 

 cabin, his home in the wilderness. The 

 author is one who can count a stream, or — 

 doubtless, though he doesn't say so much 

 — a tree, among his intimate friends, who 

 finds adventures in little things and upon 

 whom is the mystery and the wonder of 

 it all.— C. H. R. - 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The Condor. — 'The Shadow-Boxing of 

 Pipilo' is the picturesque title under which 

 Dickey gives an account of the habit of the 

 male Brown Towhee of fighting its re- 

 flection in a window. One striking case is 

 given in detail in which an Anthony's 

 Towhee at Nordhoff returned day after 

 day and week after week. This bird 



renewed its attacks for three successive 

 seasons until prevented from reaching the 

 window by a wire screen. The article is 

 illustrated by five half-tones including 

 several of the best photographs ever pub- 

 lished of the bird and its nest. 



In a paper entitled 'A Populous Shore,' 

 Mrs. F. M. Bailey recounts her experiences 

 with the water birds, waders, and some of 

 the smaller land birds near Venice, Cali- 

 fornia, in October, 1907, and gives a 

 graphic description of the havoc wrought 

 in the ranks of some of the smaller waders 

 during the hunting season. 



Willard contributes a short account of 

 'The Nesting of the Band-tailed Pigeon in 

 Southern Arizona,' based on notes made in 

 the Huachua Mountains in 1915, and calls 

 attention to the fact that in no case was 

 more than on egg or young bird found in 

 a nest. Wetmore publishes some obser- 

 vations on 'The Speed of Flight in Certain 

 Birds,' made in November, 1914, near 

 Tulare and Buena Vista Lakes. The obser- 

 vations were made from an auto on birds 

 which were flying parallel to the road while 

 the speed of the car was increased to a 

 rate equal to that at which the bird was 

 traveling. These records vary only from 

 22 to 28 miles per hour, although the notes 

 relate to such widely different birds as the 

 Blue Heron, Western Red-tailed Hawk, 

 Flicker, Horned Lark, Raven, and Shrike. 



R. H. Palmer's 'Visit to Hat and Egg 

 Islands, Great Salt Lake, describes a trip 

 in May, 1915, with notes on the Cali- 

 fornia and Ring-billed Gulls, White Peli- 

 can, Great Blue Heron, and Caspian Tern 

 on Hat Island, and Gulls, Herons, and 

 Double-crested Cormorants on Egg Island. 

 Miss Wythe's description of the 'Nesting 

 of the Tolmie Warbler in Yosemite Valley' 

 shows that the period of incubation in this 

 species to be not less than twelve days, 

 while the young leave the nest eight or 

 nine days after hatching. H. E. Wilder 

 contributes 'Some Distributional Notes on 

 California Birds,' and among the short 

 notes Bowles records the capture of two 

 European Wigeons in Washington. 



The number closes with the annual 

 Directory of the Cooper Club. — -T. S. P. 



