Hoofe jBtetDS^ ant) 3^etoieto0 



Proceedings of the Fourth Interna- 

 tional Ornithological Congress Lon- 

 don, June I, 1905. Edited under the 

 direction of the president, R. Bowdier 

 Sharpe, LL.D., by the secretaries: Ernst 

 J. O. Hartert, Ph.D., and J. Lewis 

 Bonhote, M.A. London; Dulan & Co., 

 37 Soho Square, W. February, 1907. 

 8 vo. 696 pages, 18 plates. 



This well - edited volume contains not 

 alone the papers presented before the Fourth 

 International Ornithological Congress, but 

 also an excellent history of the Congress 

 itself, with lists of officers, committees and 

 members, and detailed reports of the pro- 

 ceedings of the various sections into which 

 the Congress was divided. It is manifestly 

 impossible to review here in detail the con- 

 tents of the nearly seven hundred pages 

 forming this volume, and, merely as a 

 matter of information, we give the titles of 

 those papers of interest to Bird-Lore's 

 readers. (2) ' President's Address' (A His- 

 tory of the British Museum's collection of 

 Birds), Bowdier Sharpe; (3) 'What Con- 

 ■stitutes a Museum Collection of Birds?' 6 

 plates, Frank M. Chapman; (5) 'On the 

 Migration of Birds,' Otto Herman; (9) 'On 

 Extinct and Vanishing Birds,' 2 plates, 

 Walter Rothschild; (11) 'On Some Ant- 

 arctic Birds,' Edw. A. Wilson; (12) ' Some 

 Notes on the Hybridizing of Ducks,' 4 

 plates, J. Lewis Bonhote; (13) ' The Prin- 

 cipal Aims of Modern Ornithology,' Ernst 

 Hartert; (14) 'Some Ornithological Re- 

 sults of the Scottish National Antarctic 

 Expedition,' W. S. Bruce; (16) 'Mono- 

 graphic de la Sterne de Dougall,' i plate, 

 Louis Bureau; (20) 'On the Origin of the 

 Differences Between Nestling Birds,' W. 

 P. Pycraft; (24) 'Sequence in Moults and 

 Plumages,' Jonathan Dwight, Jr.; (27) 

 'The Unusual Migration of Briinnich's in 

 Eastern North America,' i plate, J. H. 

 Fleming; (30) 'On Colour Variation in 

 the Eggs of Palasarctic Birds,' F. C. R. 

 Jourdain; (31) 'The Wild Birds Pro- 

 tection Act,' Sir Digby Pigott; (32) 'Bird 

 Legislation in Australia,' Sir John Cock- 

 burn; (33) ' The Rationale of Bird Protec- 



tion,' Frank E. Lemon ; (34) ' The Food of 

 Birds,' Otto Herman; (35) 'Ornithologie 

 Economique,' A Quinet; (37) 'The Sparrow: 

 Is it Useful or Harmful to Agriculture ?' 

 Igali Svetozar; (40) 'The Importance of 

 Aviculture as an Aid in the Study of 

 Ornithology,' D. Seth-Smith. — F. M. C. 



The Passenger Pigeon. By W. B. Mer- 

 shon. New York: The Outing Publish- 

 ing Company, 1907. 8vo. xii + 225 

 pages, 9 plates, 2 in color. 



Mr. Mershon is to be thanked for bring- 

 ing between two covers the more important 

 literature relating to the Passenger Pigeon, 

 and adding thereto his own recollections of 

 this lost species, together with much interest- 

 ing data from various sources. Thus we 

 have the biographies written by Wilson, 

 Audubon and Bendire; Fennimore Cooper's 

 graphic description of a Pigeon flight from 

 'The Pioneers,' with more or less extended 

 quotations from later writers. 



No part of the original contributed matter 

 appears to be of greater value than that 

 furnished by Mr. Henry T. Phillips, of 

 Detroit, who from 1864 to 1878 marketed 

 Passenger Pigeons either dead or alive. 

 From a single nesting in Oceana county, 

 Michigan, in 1874, Mr. Philips states 100 

 barrels of dead birds were sold daily for 

 thirty days and, in addition, 175,000 live 

 birds were shipped. He writes that in this 

 same year there were over 600 professional 

 netters, we assume in Michigan, and adds 

 that "when the Pigeons nested north every 

 man and woman was either a catcher or 

 picker." And still people marvel at the 

 Pigeon's extinction, and seek to account 

 for its disappearance through the action of 

 some catastrophe which destroyed nearly all 

 the existing birds. Need we look for a 

 greater catastrophe than that supplied by 

 man himself? We are glad to observe that 

 Mr. Mershon places no belief in this alleged 

 cause of the Pigeon's disappearance, but 

 finds in their persecution by man a sufficient 

 explanation of their decrease. A colored 

 plate of the Passenger Pigeon by Fuertes 



(175) 



