Book News and Reviews 



267 



concerning its introduction and subse- 

 quent history of interest alike to the 

 sportsman and the biologist. In this attrac- 

 tive little book Professor Shaw tells us that 

 this Pheasant was brought to Oregon 

 through the efforts of the late Judge O. 

 N. Denny while Consul-general to Shang- 

 hai. A shipment of seventy birds sent in 

 1S80 died en route, but twenty-six of a lot 

 of thirty birds sent the following year, 

 arrived in excellent condition and were 

 released in Linn county at the foot of 

 Peterson's Butte. The species was given 

 legal protection for ten years and at the 

 end of that time it "had become so suc- 

 cessfully acclimatized as to withstand the 

 most vigorous annual onslaughts, " a 

 statement which we wish were accom- 

 panied by data in regard to increase and 

 a map showing the extent of range-exten- 

 sion from time to time. 



In writing of the habits of the Pheacant 

 and Sooty Grouse (Dendragapus) Professor 

 Shaw records the occasional hybridization 

 in nature of these species so unlike in 

 habits, haunts and appearance. The full- 

 page plates of mounted specimens of 

 Oregon Grouse and Quail reflect credit 

 on Professor Shaw's skill as a taxidermist 

 and taste as a photographer. — F. M. C. 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The Auk. — With the October number 

 this steady-going journal completes its 

 twenty-fifth volume still under the able 

 editorship of Dr. J. A. Allen, who, ever 

 since 1884, has done so much toward 

 maintaining its high standard of excel- 

 lence. The pages before us are bristling 

 with local lists or brief contributions to 

 them. We note 'Some Birds of Central 

 Alabama' by A. A. Saunders ; 'Birds of 

 the Bellingham Bay Region' by J. M. 

 Edson; a continuation of the 'List of Birds 

 of Louisiana, Part V,' by Beyer, Allison 

 and Kopman; 'Recent Bird Records for 

 Manitoba' by E. T. Seton; 'Birds of the 

 Region about Needles, California,' by N. 

 Hollister; 'The Birds of the Rosebud 

 Indian Reservation, South Dakota,' by A. 

 B. Regan: and 'New and Unpublished 



Records from Washington' by W. L. 

 Dawson. None of these calls for particular 

 comment although it strikes us that less 

 sight and more gun is desirable in some 

 cases. When, for instance, we read that 

 the Eskimo Curlew is "well represented 

 on the Butte Creek flats in June (1904)," 

 we wonder what the writer really did see. 

 We should also have liked the word "Wash- 

 ington" added to the title of Mr. Edison's 

 article because complete titles are always 

 a great convenience to many. 



Mr. Ruthven Deane tells the story of 

 'The Copper-plates of the Folio Edition 

 of Audubon's Birds of America with a 

 Brief Sketch of the Engravers. ' The 

 plates, 435 in number and weighing several 

 tons, were sold for old junk for the value 

 of the copper. Some got into the melting 

 pot while others were rescued at the last 

 moment. The photographs of casts of 

 cameos made of the author of this great 

 work fittingly accompany an article by Dr. 

 C. Hart Merriman on 'The King Cameo of 

 Audubon.' These intaglios were cut by 

 Mr. King in the early '40's. 



As for Mr. E. S. Cameron's 'Changes of 

 Plumage in Buteo swainsoni' we should 

 like to call attention to the fact that no 

 series of birds will prove the supposed 

 changes unless specimens actually in 

 molt are obtained. The gray birds may 

 change to brown through wear just as the 

 loss of the "frosting" of some Terns' 

 feathers produces blacker wings. 



A record of a Kirtland's Warbler seen by 

 Mr. J. Claire Wood is open to criticism, 

 first because it is of the kind that fills local 

 lists with question marks, and, secondly, 

 because it encourages young observers to 

 think they see in moments of excitement 

 what they have read they may see. It is 

 always the rarest bird that escapes us 

 much as it is always the biggest fish that 

 breaks from the fisherman, and we all 

 know how different from the bird in the 

 bush the bird in the hand has often 

 proved to be. And why should Kirtland's 

 Warbler in Michigan, its summer home, 

 be recorded at all? Other records in 'Gen- 

 eral Notes' concern species that have wan- 

 dered from their usual habitat. — J. D., Jr. 



