Book News and Reviews 



273 



list is based on long-continued observa- 

 tion, and has evidently been prepared 

 with a thoroughness which will make it a 

 guide for future workers as well as of 

 unusual reference value. 



Mr. Carlton D. Howe's 'Problems of 

 the Vermont Bird Club' may be profit- 

 ably read by others who have similar 

 problems at heart. G. H. Ross describes 

 the 'Nesting of the Winter Wren.' An 

 excellent paper by Miss Isabel M. Pad- 

 dock, in whose untimely death not only 

 the Vermont Club but the science of 

 ornithology has suffered a severe loss, is en- 

 titled 'Our Thrushes and Their Songs,' 

 and is accompanied by musical notations. 



Abstracts of other papers are 'Notes 

 from a Bird Table,' by Marion Boll; 'A 

 Warbler Guest,' by Emily L. and Susan 

 E. Clark; 'Some Bird Acquaintances,' 

 by Emma E. Drew. There is a report of 

 the New England Federation of Natural 

 History Clubs, by Miss Delia I. Griffin, 

 of the Club's Field Meetings, and there 

 are Bird Notes from various sources. 

 — F. M. C. 



Massachusetts Audubon Society's 

 Calendar for 1908. — The Massachu- 

 setts Audubon Society has reissued the 

 plates which appeared in its Calendars 

 for 1906 and 1907 in two Calendars for 

 1908. Each contains six plates; one illus- 

 trates the Pine Grosbeak, Saw-whet Owl, 

 Catbird, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, King- 

 fisher, and Blue Jay, the other, the 

 Black-throated Blue Warbler, Canadian 

 Warbler, Northern Yellowthroat Oven- 

 bird, Blackpoll and Myrtle Warbler. 



The plates were printed in Japan from 

 blocks made expressly for this purpose, and 

 are tastefully mounted on cards 9! x I4i 

 inches, with descriptive text on the back. 



The price of each Calendar is $1.50, 

 and orders should be sent to the Society 

 at the Boston Society of Natural History. 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The Auk. — A great bird catastrophe 

 is recorded in the opening pages of the 

 October 'Auk' by Dr. Thos. S. Roberts. 

 A host of Lapland Longspurs overtaken, 



while migrating, by a wet snowstorm on 

 the night of March 13-14, 1904, perished 

 in countless thousands in Minnesota and 

 Iowa over an area approximating 1,500 

 square miles. The accompanying photo- 

 graphs of lake and lawn surfaces attest 

 the magnitude of the tragedy, and yet, 

 in spite of the destruction in a single 

 night of a million or so birds of a single 

 species, and this just before the breeding 

 season, no preceptible diminution in their 

 numbers has been observed. Truly, the 

 bad man who collects birds may take 

 heart ! 



A continuation of E. S. Cameron's 

 paper on 'The Birds of Custer and Daw- 

 son Counties, Montana,' is accompanied 

 as usual by several fine photographs; J. F. 

 Ferry has 'Further Notes from Extreme 

 Southern Illinois'; and A. T. Wayne offers 

 ' Observations on Some Birds Procured 

 near Charleston, S. C Mr. H. E. Bige- 

 low describes in detail the plumage of four 

 hybrid Mallards and Dr. W. Faxon and 

 Mr. H. G. Higbee have each a word to 

 say about recent specimens of the supposed 

 hybrid, Brewster's Warbler. 



The 'Summer Birds of Southwestern 

 Saskatchewan' is an illustrated tale of 

 the plains, by A. C. Bent, — -and one well 

 worth the telling; for the day may not be 

 far distant when man, his cat, and the 

 House Sparrow will have ousted from this 

 region all species save those that can 

 adapt themselves to the new conditions 

 of civilization. With a minimum of shelter 

 and concentrated breeding areas, it is not 

 surprising that the bird population moves 

 out when human population moves in. 



The progress of Ridgway's, 'Birds of 

 North and Middle America' is shown by 

 a review of the fourth volume, and there 

 is an obituary of Dr. Wm. L. Ralph, 

 curator of the egg collection in the United 

 States National Museum, who died July 

 8, 1907. 



The latest rules in the game of names, 

 as adopted at the Seventh International 

 Zoological Congress, will be found at 

 page 464. Everybody has always in- 

 sisted on playing the game according to 

 his own rules, and now a loud howl of 



