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Distribution and Migration of North 

 American Rails and Their Allies. 

 By Wells W. Cooke. Assistant 

 Biologist, Bull. No. 128. U. S. Dept. 

 of Agric. Cont. from the Bureau of 

 Biological Survey. 50 pages, 19 maps 

 in text. 



To his valuable bulletins on the Ducks 

 and Geese, Shore-birds, Herons, and other 

 groups, Professor Cooke now adds a 

 study of the distribution and migration 

 of our Rails, Cranes, Coots and Gallinules. 

 The information he presents is designed 

 "to serve as a basis for protective legis- 

 lation for the species by states in which 

 they are found." (Footnote, p. i.) 



The species which particularly require 

 this protection are, as might be expected, 

 those that are pursued by the sportsman 

 and market-hunter. Chief among these 

 is the Sora or Carolina Rail. Professor 

 Cooke tells us that on September 15 and 

 16, 1881, two men killed 1,235 of these 

 birds at the mouth of the James River, 

 ''while as many as 3,000 have been shot in a 

 single day on a marsh of hardly 500 acres." 



As Professor Cooke well says the Sora at 

 all times of the year occupies ground not 

 suitable for agriculture, and until the 

 pressure of increasing population calls 

 for the draining of its haunts, especially 

 those in which it breeds, it may with a 

 proper protection "survive in abundance 

 as a game bird long after many other 

 species have succumbed before the advance 

 of intensive agriculture." 



Such protection could no doubt be 

 most practically applied by establishing a 

 reasonable bag limit, and thereby pre- 

 vent the slaughter which, under certain 

 conditions of tide and migration, gunners 

 apparently cannot resist inflicting on the 

 Sora. 



This paper is also welcome as a con- 

 tribution to our knowledge of the dis- 

 tribution and migration of the group to 

 which it relates; and the maps by which 

 it is accompanied add in no small measure 

 to its value. — F. M. C. 



(45 



Birds i\ Relation to the Alfalfa 

 Weevil. By E. R. Kalmbach, Assist- 

 ant Biologist. Bull. No. 107, U. S. 

 Dept. of Agric, Cont. from the Bureau 

 of Biological Survey. 64 pages, 5 

 plates, 3 figures. 



"The alfalfa weevil {Phyto)iomus posti- 

 cus GylL), a pest introduced into the 

 United States," Mr. Kalmbach writes, 

 "has for several years been doing enor- 

 mous damage to alfalfa crops in Utah." 

 He was therefore sent to the infested area 

 by the Biological Survey, to determine 

 what part birds played in destroying this 

 comparatively new enemy of the agri- 

 culturist. 



The results of field studies made from 

 May 8 to July 25, 191 1, and April i to 

 August 15, 191 2, are presented at length 

 in this paper. 



Mr. Kalmbach concludes that, "with 

 the possible exception of a fungous dis- 

 ease, which, in some localities, destroyed 

 large numbers of the pupaj, there probably 

 was, at the close of 191 2, no other natural 

 agency which had done more in holding 

 the alfalfa weevil in check than the 

 native birds." — F. M. C. 



The Reformation of Jimmy and Some 

 Others. By Henriette Eugenie 

 Delamare. Illustrated by F. Lilly 

 Young. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 

 Boston. i2mo., 352 pages, 8 plates. 



The ways and means by which Jimmy's 

 reformation was wrought arc in themselves 

 so interesting that, in spite of her frank 

 didacticism the author has succeeded in 

 making a readable story which holds 

 even a 'grown-up's" attention from 

 start to finish. 



.\ thoroughly consistent humanitarian 

 who can be nothing short of a vegetarian — 

 might object to having a terrier kill 

 trapped rats, for example. But if a 

 vegetarian, he would also object to raising 

 chickens for market, and the raising of 

 chickens played no small part in the 

 reformation of Jimmy. Jimmy, indeed, 



I) 



