3i8 



Bird - Lore 



bird-life about this shallow lake, in a flat 

 plain at a high altitude, with relation to 

 physiographic conditions. "The southerly 

 shores of Lake Poop6 are par excellence the 

 abode of shore-birds. Several species of 

 Plover were taking full advantage of the 

 situation. The writer estimated that for 

 each mile of shore line there were well in 

 excess of ten thousand birds. By all evidence 

 they were chiefly winter residents." 



A considerable proportion of the general 

 articles deal with matters of rather technical 

 interest. Kennard discusses moulds and 

 bacteria in egg collections at length, a paper 

 which will doubtless be of much practical 

 interest to egg collectors. Swann reports on 

 a collection of Hawks from Venezuela; 

 Bishop divides the Common Loon into two 

 races, the birds nesting in the West being 

 smaller; Bangs and Penard give the eastern 

 Hermit Thrush a new subspecific name, and 

 Peters reviews the tropical Crackles of the 

 genus Holoquiscalus. 



The seventeen pages of 'General Notes' 

 contain the usual variety of material, in- 

 cluding faunal contributions from Alabama, 

 Kentucky, Connecticut, Vermont, and scat- 

 tering. F. C. Lincoln reports on a Common 

 Tern banded by Dr. Phillips in Maine and 

 recovered in West Africa. In provisionally 

 referring four Swans observed along the 

 Hudson to the Whistling Swan, S. C. Bishop 

 is apparently unaware of the flock of feral 

 Mute Swan there resident. A. C. Gardner 

 describes a Kingbird's nest on the top of a 

 street electric light reflector, the light being 

 in use every night. C. A. Urner adds several 

 birds to species recorded as imitated by the 

 Starling. 



A printers' strike caused the late appear- 

 ance of this number — J. T. N. 



The Condor. — Students of life history 

 and habits of birds will find much of interest 

 in the July number of The Condor in three 

 articles on the food-storing habits of Wood- 

 peckers, and one on the flock-behavior of the 

 Bush-Tit. In 'The Storage of Acorns by the 

 California Woodpecker,' Henry W. Henshaw, 

 writing from his experience in the West and 

 summarizing the observations of others, 

 concludes that "the boring of holes, the 



search for acorns, the carrying them to the 

 holes and the fitting them in, bear no resem- 

 blance to work in the ordinary sense of the 

 term, but are play." Gignoux gives an inter- 

 esting account of the storage of almonds by 

 the California Woodpecker in Butte County, 

 Calif., where the bird has taken advantage of 

 a new source of food-supply. Among the 

 'Field Notes,' Morton E. Peck records the 

 fact that a related species in British Honduras 

 frequently fills holes in trees with acorns. 

 'The Flock Behavior of the Coast Bush- 

 Tit' is described in detail by R. C. Miller in 

 a paper which is styled a contribution to the 

 'new Science of field psychology.' 



An article on 'Genera and Species' by 

 McGregor is brief but to the point in stating 

 clearly that "Names are for the use of people 

 who talk or write about things, and names 

 whose meanings are frequently changed are 

 unfitted for any purpose." 



In a 'Synopsis of California Fossil Birds' 

 by Loye Miller, the leading authority on the 

 subject, it is interesting to note that the 

 total number of fossil birds now known from 

 the state is sixty-five, of which sixty-four are 

 from the Pleistocene and only one from the 

 Miocene. 



Contributors to The Condor apparently 

 sometimes find difficulty in expressing their 

 ideas in ordinary words, and in the eS'ort 

 to convey their meaning accurately indulge 

 in picturesque terms or coin words which are 

 not only additions to the vocabulary of 

 ornithology, but also to the English language. 

 In the present number we are told that while 

 the ornithologist has been engaged with 

 problems of distribution and speciation 

 (p. i2i), the study of birds from a behavior- 

 istic standpoint has been neglected (p. 122); 

 that Bush-Tits are natural agoraphobiacs 

 (p. 125), meaning simply that the birds avoid 

 open places- and that in British Honduras 

 Woodpeckers drop acorns in acornaries' 

 (p. 131). Those who find nomenclature dry 

 reading will be relieved to learn (p. 127) that 

 the subject of generic subdivision only 

 'erupts' periodically, while on p. 130 they 

 will find that the name Pleistogyps rex ap- 

 plied to a species long ago extinct, has proved 

 to be a synonym and is "hereby officially 

 cremated." — T S. P. 



