Book News and Reviews 



203 



whose camera gives us an insight into their 

 daily doings. Isolation has hitherto pro- 

 tected the few species of land-birds and 

 many sea-birds found on Laysan, but now 

 that man has a foothold on the island, there 

 may be work cut out for the Audubon Soci- 

 eties in the near future. 



Three letters of Audubon are brought to 

 light by S. N. Rhoads. The Black-winged 

 Tanager of South America is discussed by 

 A. H. Clark, and a new species of Night- 

 hawk from the Bahamas, Chordeiles vir- 

 ginianus 'vicinus, is named by J. H. Riley. 



Reviews, notes, etc., together with index 

 and list of members, complete the number. 

 The current volume, containing 480 pages, 

 is the largest ever offered to the readers of 

 ' The Auk, ' with the one exception of 1886. 

 -J- D - Jr. 



The Condor. — The September number 

 of ' The Condor ' contains four main arti- 

 cles. The first, entitled ' With the Mearns 

 Quail in Southwestern Texas,' by Fuertes, 

 is illustrated with three text figures and a 

 striking frontispiece showing the different 

 positions assumed by the bird's crest. Not- 

 withstanding the conspicuous plumage of 

 this quail, it is shown that the peculiar 

 markings are in some measure, at least, pro- 

 tective, when considered in connection with 

 the bird's habit and habitat. "The very 

 contrasts which look so conspicuous when 

 seen in the hand, isolated from the sharp 

 lights and shadows of the natural environ- 

 ment, serve to so ' cut up ' the creature that 

 in nature all semblance of a bird is lost." 



Under the heading ' Some Observations on 

 the Nesting Habits of the Prairie Falcon,' 

 Cohen gives a summary of his notes on 

 Falco mexicanus in the San Francisco Bay 

 region, where the bird is now very rare. 

 'Bird Life on the Farallone Islands,' by 

 Kaeding, is the first published account of the 

 visit made to the Islands by the A. O. U. 

 party in June, 1903. The paper is illus- 

 trated with six half-tones, and concludes 

 with a list of seventeen species of birds ob- 

 served. Illustrations and descriptions, how- 

 ever, no matter how elaborate, give but 

 little idea of the real conditions existing on 

 this wonderful bird colony. It must be seen 

 to be fully appreciated, and, as the author 



truthfully says, "atrip to the Farallones is 

 a liberal education." The first instal- 

 ment of ' A List of the Birds Observed in 

 Cochise county, Arizona,' from November 

 I, 1894, *o June I, 1895, is contributed by 

 Osgood. 



Wilson Bulletin. — Number 44 of ' The 

 Wilson Bulletin ' contains four communi- 

 cations of interest. The opening one, by 

 Mrs. Elizabeth B. Davenport, relates to the 

 ' Birds Observed on Mt. Mansfield [Ver- 

 mont] and the West End of Stowe Valley 

 at the base of the Mountains, in the Sum- 

 mer of 1902.' The titles of the three other 

 papers are as follows : ' A Nest of the West- 

 ern Horned Owl,' by E. R. Warren; 

 'Winter Birds of Centra! Park, New York 

 City,' by C. H. Rogers; and 'The Terns 

 of the Weepecket Islands, Massachusetts,'' 

 by Lynds Jones. 



With the exception of four days, Mrs. 

 Davenport devoted a considerable part of 

 the time between June 6 and July 31 to col- 

 lecting data for her paper, and was fortu- 

 nate enough to secure notes on seventy-four 

 species of birds, all of which, with the ex- 

 ception of the Spotted Sandpiper, were 

 land-birds. 



Charles H. Rogers has given a summary 

 of his observations covering three seasons, 

 on the winter birds of Central Park. The 

 thirty-three species noted are divided into 

 ' Winter Visitors,' ' Permanent Residents,' 

 'Occasional Stragglers from the Countr3%' 

 and winter birds that have been observed, 

 but not during the winter months. In 

 1881 Dr. E. A. Mearns published a series- 

 of articles in the New York 'Observer,' 

 giving an annotated list of the birds found 

 in the park, which, if we remember cor- 

 rectly, include observations on the winter 

 visitors. It might be instructive to com- 

 pare the two lists, which were prepared 

 twenty-five years apart. Lynds Jones gives 

 an interesting paper covering his obser- 

 vations made during the past summer 

 among the Common Terns and Roseate 

 Terns on the Weepecket Islands. He had 

 a good opportunity to study these birds on 

 their nesting grounds, and was able ta 

 gather some valuable information concern- 

 ing their life histories. — A. K. F. 



