Book News and Reviews 



20 r 



In the matter of illustrations the pub- 

 lishers have been both liberal and discrimi- 

 nating, securing two well-equipped artists 

 and reproducing their work in a thoroughly 

 satisfactory manner. The photographs of 

 typical scenes are rendered extremely in- 

 structive by detailed captions explanatory 

 of their significance and naming the birds 

 characteristic of the locality depicted. — 

 F. M. G. 



Birds of the Cape Region of Lower 

 California. By William Brewster. 

 Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., XLI, No. 1, 

 1902. 241 pages; 1 map. 



Based primarily on the field-work and col- 

 lections of Mr. M. Abbott Frazar, who was 

 sent by Mr. Brewster to the Cape Region, 

 this book also includes whatever it has 

 seemed desirable to quote from the publica- 

 tions of previous authors, and it therefore 

 forms a complete exposition of our knowl- 

 edge of the bird-life of the region to which 

 it relates. It is prepared with the care and 

 attention to detail which characterizes all 

 its author's published writings and at once 

 takes its place among the standard treatises 

 on faunal ornithology. 



After defining the limits of the Coast 

 Region and presenting a narrative of Mr. 

 Frazar's explorations, the 167 species and 

 88 subspecies known from the Cape Region 

 are treated at length. Of this number 36 

 species and subspecies are here recorded 

 from the Cape Region for the first time; 

 while Mr. Frazar's activity in the field 

 yielded 3 new species and 12 new subspe- 

 cies, 3 of which, with a new Screech Owl, 

 are described in this important paper. — 

 F. M. C. 



Birds of the Hawaiian Islands. By H. 

 W. Henshaw. Thos. G. Thrum, Pub- 

 lisher, Honolulu, H. T. Price, $1. 

 i2mo. 146 pages; 1 plate. 



Readers of Bird -Lore will recall Mr. 

 Henshaw's interesting papers on Hawaiian 

 birds published in this magazine in 1901, 

 and will be glad to learn that this author 

 has placed in accessible form the results of 

 his wide experience with Hawaiian birds, 

 including, also, the better part of that which 

 has been recorded by other workers among' 

 these islands. 



In an admirable introduction of 28 pages 

 the peculiar conditions affecting Hawaiian 

 bird-life, its origin, the faunal zones of the 

 island, etc., are discussed, and the 125 birds 

 native to the islands are then described, 

 under each species being given the known 

 facts in its history as a Hawaiian bird ; we 

 have here, therefore, a complete text-book 

 of the Hawaiian avifauna. 



Ten species of birds have been successfully 

 introduced into the islands, among them the 

 Skylark, and it is most instructive to observe 

 with what facility most of these birds appear 

 to have established themselves. 



Lack of space prevents a more extended 

 notice of this important contribution to the 

 literature of ornithology and island-life. 

 American ornithologists will now feel that 

 their loss, when Mr. Henshaw left this 

 country to take up his residence in Hawaii, 

 was at least sustained in a good cause. — 

 F. M. C. 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The Auk.— In the October 'Auk' will 

 be found two papers on West Indian birds, 

 one the conclusion of a list of ' The Birds 

 of the Island of Carriacou,' by J. G. Wells, 

 the other a similar list of ' Birds of Porto 

 Rico,' by B. S. Bowdish, to becontinued. 

 Both are pleasantly annotated. A paper 

 also worthy of consideration is by R. E. 

 Snodgrass, on ' The Relation of the Food 

 to the Size and Shape of the Bill in the 

 Galapagos, Genus Geospiza.'' There are 

 plates and tables of the seeds found in 209 

 specimens of about a dozen species of the 

 genus, and we read "that one is almost 

 forced to the conclusion that all the species 

 of Geospiza eat simply whatever seeds are 

 accessible to them." The evidence indicates 

 that "there is no correlation between the 

 food and the size and shape of the bill." 



Under the title of ' A New Long-billed 

 Marsh Wren from Eastern North America,' 

 O. Bangs puts in the subspecific wedge and 

 splits the inland fresh-water bird from the 

 dweller of the salt-marshes. We will hope 

 that salt has been put upon the right tail in 

 catching the subspecies. ' The Nomencla- 

 ture and Validity of Certain North Ameri- 

 can Gallinae ' is a defense by E. W. Nelson 



