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Bird -Lore 



Cambridge; but when we compare its 'Ab- 

 stract ' with 'Cassinia,' the publication of 

 the Delaware Valley Club, above reviewed, 

 we are led to believe that the comparative 

 degree of interest in ornithology in and about 

 both cities is fairly well expressed in the 

 respective organs of these societies. The 

 Linnasan Society does not appear to have 

 had presented before it a single paper on 

 local ornithology worthy of publication; its 

 meetings were often suspended or were 

 abandoned for lack of a quorum, and the 

 highest attendance of members at any meet- 

 ing — one of exceptional interest — was eleven, 

 the average being about eight. 



The Delaware Club, on the other hand, 

 seems not to have missed a single meeting; 

 its average attendance of members was 23 ; 

 the highest, 37. 



Ornithologists about New York may well 

 consider the significance of these figures. — 

 F. M. C. 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The Condor. — With the close of 1904, 

 ' The Condor ' completed its sixth year. 

 This volume is larger than any previous 

 one and contains nearly twice as many 

 illustrations as that for 1903. The Novem- 

 ber-December alone contains two full-page 

 plates and eighteen half-tones in the text, 

 most of them accompanying a paper on the 

 habits of the ' The Black-headed Gros- 

 beak,' by Wm. L. Finley, and an article 

 on 'Albatross Pictures,' by Walter K. 

 Fisher. 



In ' Extracts from Some Montana Note- 

 books, 1904,' Silloway gives the results of 

 collecting near Lewistown, Mont., written 

 ostensibly from the standpoint of the birds 

 which have suffered from the raids of the 

 egg-collector. In ' An Early Notice of 

 Philippine Birds,' McGregor republishes 

 from a collection of voyages and travels, 

 issued in 1704, some notes made by Dr. 

 John Careri, who visited the Philippines 

 in 1696 — 97. These notes are interesting 

 historically and are sufficiently definite to 

 make it possible to identify seven species 

 specifically and to recognize allusions to 

 several groups such as the Quail and Par- 

 rots, which are represented in the archipel- 



ago by a number of species, Bowles con- 

 tributes an interesting account of two sets of 

 eggs of the Western Golden-crowned 

 Kinglets, found in Washington in 1904, 

 and Sharp describes ' A Set of Abnormally 

 Large Eggs of the Golden Eagle,' collected 

 a few miles west of the Escondido Valley ,^ 

 Cal., March 12, 1904. 



In making a comparison between the 

 bird-life of the Pajaro Valley, Cal., and 

 that of Sioux county. Neb., Hunter records 

 106 species from the former locality and 103 

 from the latter. Of these, 45 species are 

 common to both regions, but, in the opinion 

 of the author, gallinaceous birds and the 

 best songsters are better represented ir> 

 Sioux county. Among the short notes, 

 Schutz's account of ' The Destruction of 

 Bird-Life by Light Towers' in Austin, 

 Texas, deserves special mention. The 

 series of portraits is continued by an ex- 

 cellent picture of Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, 

 of the U. S. National Museum. — T. S. P. 



The Auk. — The January number of this 

 journal is up to its usual standard, containing, 

 as it does, several important articles and a 

 large number of valuable notes and reviews. 

 A particularly noteworthy paper is by Irene 

 G. Wheelock on 'Regurgitative Feeding of 

 Nestlings,' the claim being urged that 

 among many broods carefully watched, 

 chiefly of Passerine species, "every brood 

 hatched in a naked or semi -naked condition 

 was fed by regurgitation a period varying 

 from one day to four weeks." The accuracy 

 of the observations seems beyond question, 

 and the novelty of the facts forms a valuable 

 contribution to our knowledge of the home 

 affairs of birds. The temporary storage in 

 the crop of food for the young has previously 

 been detected in only a few species, and we 

 are here still left in doubt as to how much 

 of the disgorgement is from the pharynx and 

 how much from the oesophagus itself. As 

 practically no digestion takes place in the 

 crop of any bird, the assumption is unwar- 

 ranted that a mass of the soft parts of insects 

 and seeds mixed with the saliva of the crop 

 is "partly digested "; still, the mere fact that 

 any sort of regurgitation takes place is one 

 that is novel and of some importance as 

 showing to what extent birds employ the 



