i8o 



Bird- Lore 



enumerated by H. H. Kopman, and notes 

 on Long Island, N. Y., are furnished by 

 Dr. W. C. Braislin, while R. Deane con- 

 tributes another letter by Audubon and 

 some to him written by J. Abert. We note 

 an annotated preliminary list of the birds 

 of Delaware, by S. N. Rhoads and C. J. 

 Pennock, and hope it may escape the fate 

 of other ' preliminary ' lists that so rarely 

 get beyond this stage. 



The general notes are varied and the re- 

 views comprehensive, especially one of Part 

 III of Ridgway's ' Birds of North and Mid- 

 dle America.' We regret to see the depart- 

 \, ment of 'Publications Received ' still rele- 

 ) gated to the back cover, for as a record of 

 current literature it deserves a better fate, 

 and those of us who fail to bind in covers 

 will lose a valuable part of the 'Auk.' — 

 J. D., Jr. 



The Condor. — Two numbers of Vol. 

 VII of 'The Condor' have already ap- 

 peared. The leading article of the January 

 number is by Finley, on ' Photographing 

 the Aerie of a Western Red-tail,' and is 

 illustrated by a plate and six text figures. 

 Under the title 'An Untenable Theory of 

 Bird Migration,' Professor Cooke presents 

 certain objections to Palmen's theory that 

 "the annual migration route of a species 

 indicates the way by which it originally 

 immigrated into its present breeding home." 

 But in the March number Dr. Stejneger 

 takes exception to Professor Cooke's views 

 and concludes that "Palmen's theory can- 

 not be disposed of in this off-hand manner," 

 An account of 'Old Fort Tejon,' one of 

 the classic ornithological localities in Cali- 

 fornia, is given by Grinnell, who adds a 

 nominal list of 54 species of birds observed 

 during a week's visit in July, 1904. The 

 same trip seems to have included Mt. Pinos, 

 not far distant, where a Sage Sparrow was 

 collected which is described as a new sub- 

 species under the name Amphispiza belli 

 canescens. Some Bird Notes from the 

 Central Sierras,' by Keyes; 'Notes from 

 Flathead,' Mont., by Silloway, and 'Sum- 

 mer Birds of the Papago Indian Reserva- 

 tion,' Arizona, by Swarth, all contain 

 records of value to the student of geographic 



distribution ; while the systematic zoologist 

 will find much of interest in the extracts 

 from Dr. Jordan's ' New Code of Nomen- 

 clature.' A portrait of William Dutcher, 

 president of the National Association of 

 Audubon Societies, concludes the series of 

 portraits of American ornithologists. 



The March number opens with 'A Note 

 on, the Prairie Falcon' at Pyramid Lake, 

 Nev., by Fuertes, illustrated by a repro- 

 duction of a drawing by the author. An 

 interesting bit of historical lore is con- 

 tributed by Emerson, who tells of the 

 discovery in the Cooper homestead at 

 Haywards, Cal., of some 'Manuscript of 

 Charles Lucien Bonaparte,' comprising the 

 last three volumes of the 'American Orni- 

 thology' published in 1825. -^ facsimile 

 of a page of the manuscript on Steller's Jay 

 and a portrait of Bonaparte add greatly to 

 the interest of the paper. Under the title 

 'Breeding Notes from New Mexico,' Mrs. 

 Bailey mentions the birds found with young 

 at high altitudes in the Rocky Mountains in 

 July and early August in 1904, and records 

 an instance of Golden Eagles repairing their 

 nest in the Taos Mountains on August 10. 

 Grinnell calls attention to the peculiar 

 ' Status of the Townsend Warbler in Cali- 

 fornia.' The bird " occurs in California in 

 two roles, as a regular winter visitant and 

 as a rather late spring migrant." Two 

 geographical races are apparently repre- 

 sented, but, although a supposed new sub- 

 species is thus indicated, the author 

 considerately refrains from "burdening it 

 with a name." An important feature of the 

 current volume is a series of portraits of 

 eminent European ornithologists, beginning 

 with likenesses of two prominent English- 

 men, Dr. P. L. Sclater and Mr. Howard 

 Saunders; the veteran German, Dr. Jean 

 Cabanis, and the well-known Austrian 

 ornithologist. Count von Tschusi zu 

 Schmidhoffen. A brief statement of the 

 work of each author appears in the column 

 of ' Editorial Notes.' The editor also makes 

 the welcome announcement that the A. O. 

 U. bill, which failed in 1901, has finally 

 become a law in California after undergoing 

 certain modifications which were found 

 necessary to insure its passage. — T. S. P. 



