Book News and Reviews 



453 



feature of this and other issues of 'The 

 Auk.' 



The death of the last surviving Wild 

 Pigeon {Ectopistes migratorius), a bird 

 twenty-nine years in the Cincinnati 

 Zoological Garden, is recorded. This 

 marks the extinction of a species once so 

 abundant that the flocks darkened the 

 sky for hours as they passed swiftly on 

 their way. Here is a worthy text for 

 every preacher of bird protection. — 

 J. D., Jr. 



The Condor. — The contents of the 

 September number of 'The Condor' are 

 more varied than usual and contain two 

 or three articles of special interest. 

 Dickey's 'Nesting of the Spotted Owl' 

 in Ventura County, in 1913, is a well- 

 illustrated and valuable addition to our 

 knowledge of the life history of this little- 

 known bird. 



In an obituary notice of Henry W. 

 Marsden, Bishop details with skilful and 

 sympathetic touch the difficulties encoun- 

 tered by an earnest and conscientious 

 field-collector who seems to have been too 

 little known to the majority of ornitholo- 

 gists. For the last twelve years Marsden 

 has made California his home, usually 

 spending the winters at Redlands or 

 Witch Creek. He collected extensively 

 in southern Arizona, and while there in 

 1905 added Salvin's Hummingbird to the 

 list of birds found in the United States. 

 He also added to the list of California 

 birds the Chestnut-sided Warbler and the 

 Horned Puffin, the latter only nine days 

 before his death, which occurred at 

 Pacific Grove, on Feb. 26, 1914. 



Mailliard contributes 'Notes on a 

 Colony of Tricolored Redwings' which 

 bred this year on the Rancho Dos Rios 

 in Stanislaus County, and compares the 

 habits of the birds with those in a breed- 

 ing colony in Madera County which he 

 described some years ago. 



In 'Bird Notes from the Sierra Madre,' 

 Edwards gives a list of 47 species observed 

 during a trip, in June, 1914, in the Big 

 Tujunga Range in the Angeles National 

 Forest. In a bare fir stub about 80 feet 



high and 6 feet in diameter at the base, he 

 found no less than six different kinds of 

 birds nesting and rearing their young. 

 The list included the White-throated 

 Swift ("which seemed to have a nest in a 

 large crack about 20 feet up" — a most 

 unusual nesting-site), the Western House 

 Wren, Cabanis' Woodpecker, Mountain 

 Chickadee, Western Bluebird, and West- 

 ern Martin, all of which, apparently, 

 found congenial homes in this avian 

 apartment-house. 



Critical notes «based on 'A Study of 

 Certain Island Forms of the Genus 

 Salpinctes' are given by Swarth, who 

 describes a new subspecies {Salpinctes 

 guadeloiipensis proximus) based on a 

 single specimen from San Martin Island, 

 Lower California. 



The most important article is Bryant's 

 20-page 'Survey of the Breeding-Grounds 

 of Ducks in California, in 1914,' con- 

 taining the results of an investigation 

 made possible by a fund contributed by 

 certain public-spirited friends of game 

 protection. In this most interesting 

 report, the breeding-grounds at Los 

 Banos, Gridley, and the Klamath Lake 

 region are described, and full notes given 

 on the seven species of Ducks, the Canada 

 Goose, Coot and several wadeis which 

 were found nesting in these localities. 

 Many nests were found destroyed by 

 predaceous animals — in some cases, 

 especially at Los Banos, due to lowering 

 of the water, thus giving raccoons, 

 weasels, and coyotes access to nests built 

 on islets or tussocks of grass which at 

 first were protected by the surrounding 

 water. It is also probable that mere 

 examination of some nests served to 

 locate them for predatory animals which 

 followed the observer's tracks, and in 

 this way the ratio of nests destroyed was 

 inadvertently increased. 



Those interested in osteology will find 

 much of value in the final article, in 

 which Holden describeds a new 'Method 

 of Cleaning Skulls' by means of two 

 solutions, one of phenol or carbolic 

 acid, and the other of peroxide of 

 hydrogen. 



