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Bird -Lore 



of the status of several Mexican species 

 (chiefly Quail) recently discredited by Mr. 

 Ogilvie-Grant. Two half-tone plates seem 

 to sustain Mr. Nelson's views. ' A De- 

 scription of the Adult Black Merlin,' by 

 F. H. Eckstorm, shows ingenuity, introduc- 

 ing, for instance, "high lights" to "demark" 

 a crown patch otherwise concolor. ' A 

 Hybrid between the Cliff and Tree Swal- 

 lows ' is described by F. M. Chapman, and 

 C. W. Wickham writes on the ' Sickle- 

 billed Curlew.' There is much of interest 

 among the numerous notes and reviews that 

 fill thirty pages. — J. D., Jr. 



The Condor. — The leading articles of 

 the September-October number of ' The 

 Condor' are very appropriately devoted to 

 the life and work of Dr. James G. Cooper, 

 the distinguished ornithologist and natu- 

 ralist, who died July 19, 1902, and in 

 whose honor the Cooper Ornithological Club 

 was named. His death marks the passing 

 of the last of the naturalists connected with 

 the Pacific Railroad Surveys who laid the 

 foundations of our knowledge of western 

 birds. The brief but sympathetic bio- 

 graphical sketch by Emerson is illustrated 

 by reproductions of a photograph of Dr. 

 Cooper taken in 1865, and a view of his 

 home at Haywards, California. Dr. 

 Cooper attained the age of seventy-two 

 years, and during the forty years in which 

 his researches were actively carried on, 

 published about seventy-five papers on the 

 natural history of the Pacific coast. The 

 titles of his ornithological writings have 

 been collected by Grinnell, who contributes 

 a complete annotated list of twenty-six 

 papers, the most important of which are the 

 report on the birds of Washington, in the 

 reports of the Pacific Railroad Surveys, 

 i860, and the ' Ornithology of California,' 

 1870. 



The first part of an important paper on 

 ' The Redwood Belt of Northwestern Cali- 

 fornia,' by Walter K. Fisher, is devoted to 

 a discussion of the faunal peculiarities of 

 the region. Lists of the characteristic 

 plants and birds are given, and the difficul- 

 ties attending a precise definition of the life 

 zones of this belt are clearly shown. ' The 



status of the Arizona Goldfinch in Califor- 

 nia' is reviewed by Grinnell, who con- 

 cludes that the so-called Astragalinus psal- 

 tria arizonae which is found in California 

 is merely a peculiar plumage of A. psaltria, 

 in which the black dorsal markings are 

 unusually extended. Two other papers 

 which merit special mention are Barlow's 

 ' Observations on the Rufous-crowned 

 Sparrow,' illustrated by an excellent half- 

 tone of the nest and eggs; and Sharp's 

 ' Nesting of the Swainson Hawk.' The 

 latter article contains the curious misstate- 

 ment that the bird's food supply " consists 

 ■zuholly of those four-footed pests which 

 every farmer and ranchman recognizes as 

 among his worst enemies." As a matter of 

 fact, Swainson's Hawk is remarkable for the 

 large number of grasshoppers it destroys. 

 A specimen which I examined at Pomona, 

 California, on August 31, 1887, contained 

 the heads of more than one hundred and 

 thirty of these insects. — T. S. P. 



Wilson Bulletin. — ' Wilson Bulletin ' 

 No. 40 contains a number of interesting 

 papers, but we can not help regretting the 

 lateness of its arrival. This tendency 

 among natural history magazines to delay 

 publication far beyond the designated pe- 

 riod is a growing evil, and is one for which 

 there is little excuse. The fault usually 

 lies with the contributors, whose belated 

 ideas prevent the good-natured editors from 

 liberating the proof at the proper time. 

 All, however, should have sufficient pride 

 to be willing to cooperate with the editors 

 in making the magazines business-like pro- 

 ductions. 



The opening paper by Rev. W. F. Hen- 

 ningei' on the Birds of Scioto and Pike 

 counties, Ohio, is a well-prepared annotated 

 list covering 216 species, classified under 

 the following categories: residents, 42; 

 summer residents, 61; regular transients, 

 65; irregular and rarer transients, 27; win- 

 ter residents, 10; accidental visitors, 7; 

 extinct, 2; introduced, 2. The observa- 

 tions were made chiefly at three localities 

 and ran through a period from the summer 

 of 1894 to that of 1902. Notes on the ar- 

 rival and departure are given for many of 



