366 



Bird - Lore 



The book is intended for the general 

 reader in natural history, not for the 

 amateur who wishes to identify and learn 

 about the birds he sees on a trip to Switz- 

 erland.— C. H. R. 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The Condor. — The July number of 

 'The Condor' is essentially an oological 

 number, as two of the three main articles 

 are devoted to the subject of eggs. In 

 one, Dr. T. W. Richards, U. S. N., pre- 

 sents 'A Plea for Comparative Oology,' 

 and in the other. Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, 

 U. S. A., writes 'On the Oology of the 

 North American Pygopodes.' Dr. Rich- 

 ards calls attention to the tendency to 

 form 'faunal' rather than 'group' collec- 

 tions of eggs, and shows that more valua- 

 ble information can be acquired from a 

 study of the eggs of a certain group of 

 birds than from the eggs of those which 

 breed in a certain area. But the main 

 weakness of oology is touched on only 

 incidentally, namely, that, although it 

 is the means by which many students 

 become interested in birds, its chief result 

 seems to be acquisition rather than serious 

 study. Oologists are apt to be more con- 

 cerned with making collections than with 

 carefully studying their specimens. Most 

 collectors of eggs, at least in this country, 

 have unfortunately published little, and 

 aside from notes on color, size, and num- 

 ber of eggs in a set, the larger private col- 

 lections have thus far yielded only a 

 meager contribution to our knowledge of 

 the life histories of birds. Dr. Shufeldt 

 describes the eggs of the North American 

 Grebes and Loons from specimens in the 

 U. S. National Museum and the E. J. 

 Court collections. Excellent figures are 

 given of selected eggs of the Western, 

 Holboell, Mexican, Eared, and Pied-billed 

 Grebes, and of the Common, Black- 

 throated, and Red-throated Loons. 



In a brief but interesting illustrated 

 article, Willett gives an acount of the 

 'Peculiar Death of a California Bush-Tit' 

 which became entangled in the wool used 

 in the construction of its nest. This nest 



was found March 28, 1914, near Live 

 Oak, Sutter Co., Calif. 



Among the shorter articles, A. B. Howell 

 makes 'A Plea for More Lasting Field 

 Notes,' and urges that provision should be 

 made by field collectors to turn over their 

 notes (after they are through with them) 

 to some central agency, such as the Cooper 

 Ornithological Club, where they will be 

 preserved and utilized. If this suggestion 

 could be carried out, the club would soon 

 have a unique collection of manuscripts, 

 and would be able to preserve much 

 valuable material, now lost. How much 

 could be added to our knowledge of cer- 

 tain phases of bird-life in the last century 

 if the notebooks of some of the older 

 ornithologists were now available! How 

 much light could be thrown on Pacific- 

 coast ornithology if the field-notes of 

 Bryant, Cooper, Gambel, Grayson, Suck- 

 ley, and others, were preserved and 

 accessible. But who knows whether any 

 of these notes are still extant or where 

 they are?— T. S. P. 



The Oriole. — The first number of the 

 second volume of 'The Oriole' (June, 1914) 

 organ of the Somerset Hills Bird Club 

 (Bernardsville, N. J.), opens with an 

 article, by William S. Post, on the oppor- 

 tunities for bird students afforded by the 

 region about Bernardsville. They are 

 obviously so promising that we hope the 

 members of the Somerset Hills Bird Club 

 will take advantage of them. Meredith 

 H. Pyne, however, in 'The Destruction 

 of Bird Life in Bernardsville,' tells us that 

 "savage cats," "tree-climbing children," 

 and the encroachments of civilization, 

 have left "very few" of the birds which 

 ten years ago abounded there. 



Evidently not sharing Burroughs' 

 estimate of alliteration, Lilian Gillette 

 Cook writes of meeting some of the com- 

 mon European birds in their haunts, under 

 the title 'A Few Friendly Foreigners in 

 Feathers.' 



The Editor, John Dryden Kuser, pre- 

 sents a series of thoughtful replies to the 

 question 'Why Study Birds?' and in a 

 second article, William S. Post makes an 



