Book News and Reviews 



i«i 



lication in detail, in book form. The paper 

 treats of the social life of Pigeons during 

 the nesting season, with particular refer- 

 ence to the voice as " a means of influencing 

 the behavior of individuals, so as to bring 

 them into cooperation, one with another." 



In 'Methods of Recording and Utiliz- 

 ing Bird-Migration Data' (Proceedings 

 Academy Natural Science, Philadelphia, 

 1908, pp. 128-156), Mr. Witmer Stone 

 discusses the problems which have con- 

 fronted all compilers of migration records, 

 and suggests various means of presen- 

 tation in a manner which will interest all 

 who have to do with this subject. 



Bulletin No. 3 of the Vermont Bird 

 Club (Carlton D. Howe, Secretary, 

 Essex Junction) contains some thirty 

 pages of papers and notes relating to 

 Vermont birds, the most important of 

 which is Mrs. Elizabeth B. Davenport's 

 'Summer Birds of Mt. Mansfield and 

 Region Adjacent to the Base of the Moun- 

 tain' (pp. S-12). 



The Kansas University Science Bulletin 

 for September, 1908 (pp. 377-388), con- 

 tains 'Notes on Some [40] Northern Ari- 

 zona Birds', made by the author, Alex 

 Wetmore, at Williams, Arizona, between 

 February 24 and April i, 1907. 



'Some Birds of Molakai' by Wm. Alan- 

 son Bryan (Occasional Papers of the B. 

 P. Bishop Museum, IV, No. 2, Honolulu, 

 1908) contains much interesting bio- 

 graphical matter. 



We are in receipt of a copy of the new 

 edition of Mr. C. A. Reed's popular 'Bird 

 Guide' (Worcester, Mass., 1909), in which 

 the line cuts of the first edition are re- 

 placed by four-color illustrations. The 

 result, from both an artistic and scientific 

 point of view, is a marked improvement, 

 the new figures being both more pleasing 

 and more accurate than those of the first 

 edition. It is to be regretted that Mr. 

 Reed did not also revise the text of this 

 useful and convenient manual and thus 

 bring it up to the standard of his excellent 

 plates. 



The Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of 

 Natural Sciences (Vol. IX, 1909, pp. 

 134-148) contains an interesting article 

 by Ottomar Reinecke on the Woodcock, 

 fully illustrated with photographs by 

 James Savage and E. Reinecke, and draw- 

 ings by William Wild. The photographs 

 are excellent and have that interest and 

 value always attached to direct records 

 from nature. The drawings, on the other 

 hand, while no doubt good artistically, 

 show what may follow when the human 

 eye rather than the eye of the camera tells 

 the story. Thus a Woodcock's nest is 

 shown with five eggs, a number so un- 

 usual as to be considered abnormal, while 

 a sketch of the bird on the nest makes it 

 a conspicuous dark figure against a light 

 background, instead of being marvelously 

 fused with its background as the photo- 

 graphs admirably depict it. 



Publication No. 103 of the Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington contains (pp. 

 139-151) 'A Contribution to the Life- 

 Histories of the Booby (Sula leucogastra) 

 and Man-o'-War Bird (Fregata aquila) ' 

 by Frank M. Chapman, in which it is 

 claimed that Audubon's record of the 

 breeding of this Booby in the Tortugas 

 was based on the Red-footed Booby (Sula 

 piscator) and that there is no authentic 

 record of the breeding of the Man-o'- 

 War Bird in Florida. 



'The Crow as a Menace to Poultry 

 Raising' is the subject of a paper by Leon 

 J. Cole in the report of the Rhode Island 

 Agricultural Experiment Station for 1908 

 (pp. 312-316). Doctor Cole expresses his 

 belief that while some Crows may destroy 

 the eggs and young of poultry, we should 

 not for that reason offer a bounty on 

 Crows, but should leave the matter for 

 local adjustment "for in those localties 

 where Crows are proving harmful this 

 should in itself act as an incentive for les- 

 sening their numbers, while if they are do- 

 ing no harm or are perhaps of benefit in 

 other places, a bounty will work against 

 its own ultimate ends, namely, the inter- 

 ests of the agriculturist." 



