52 



THE CONDOR 



Vol. X 



The following notice appeared in the Port- 

 land Oregonian for December 8, 1907: 



"A consignment of European song birds was 

 received last week by C. F. Pfluger, secretary 

 of the Portland Songbird Club. The consign- 

 ment consisted of song thrushes, chaff and gold- 

 finches, black caps and skylarks. The birds 

 were imported direct from the Hanover district 

 in Germany and from England. Seventy pairs 

 of the birds were placed in the aviary at the 

 City Park to be sheltered until Spring, when 

 they will be liberated. Sixty pairs of skylarks 

 were also forwarded to bird clubs in Washing- 

 ton, Yamhill, Marion, Clatsop and Multnomah 

 Counties, where they will later be set free. 



"The Portland Club is also making arrange- 

 ments for the importation of mocking birds, 

 which are expected to reach this city early 

 next Spring. Much good will result from the 

 addition of these birds, as they are known to 

 be effective insect exterminators, and are act- 

 ive, hardy and well adapted to the climate of 

 this section." 



Perhaps some such idiotic procedure as the 

 above accounts for the record of the Chaffinch at 

 Monterey (see Condor VIII, March, 1906, p. 58). 

 The next thing we know we will have Chaf- 

 finches and Goldfinches to deal with along 

 with the "English Sparrow problem." The 

 Audubon Societies should bend their efforts 

 against the introduction of foreign birds, if 

 they wish to keep our native avifauna intact. 



Mr. Finley suggests that the popularity of 

 the introduction idea in Oregon is probably 

 due to the importation of the "China Pheas- 

 ant," so successful, at least from the sports- 

 man's standpoint. 



PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED 



American Birds | Studied and Photo- 

 graphed FROM Life | By William Lovell 

 Finley | Illustrated from Photographs by ] 

 Herman T. Bohlman ] and the Author | Charles 

 Scribner's Sons ] New York | 1907 (our copy 

 received December 10, 1907). Pp. i-xvi, 1-256, 

 127 halftones on book plate paper. (Ir.50.) 



This is the most attractive popular bird book 

 of the year. In fact it contains the greatest 

 number of photographic illustrations, and illus- 

 trations of the greatest scientific value, of any 

 book we have ever seen. The following well- 

 stated epitome of the scope of the book consti- 

 tutes part of the Prefatory Note: 



"An important and sometimes difficult phase 

 in the study of bird life is to observe accurately 

 and report without false interpretation the 

 habits and actions of birds. The naturalist 

 who uses the camera in the field often has the 



advantage of backing his observations with 

 proof (not an unimportant thing in nature writ- 

 ing of today), and if he produces good authen- 

 tic photographs, one may be quite sure they 

 were not secured without patient waiting and a 

 careful study of his subjects. 



"In this book no attempt has been made to 

 include all the different bird families, but a 

 series of representative birds from the hum- 

 mingbird to the eagle has been selected. Each 

 chapter represents a close and continued study 

 with camera and notebook at the home of some 

 bird or group of birds, — a true life history of 

 each species. It is the bird as a live creature, 

 its real wild personality and character, that 

 I have tried to portray. 



"Many of these studies were made in the 

 West, but in the list of birds treated an effort 

 has been made to get a selection that is 

 national in scope. In the popular mind a song 

 sparrow is a song sparrow from ocean to ocean, 

 yet scientifically he represents over a dozen 

 subspecies, according to the part of the coun- 

 try in which he lives. To the ordinary bird 

 lover, however, a robin is the same east and 

 west, and the same is true of the chickadee, 

 flicker, wren, grosbeak, vireo, warbler, hawk, 

 and others dealt with in the following chap- 

 ters." 



The twenty-one chapters are titled as fol- 

 lows: The Hummingbird at Home; The Chick- 

 adee; Photographing Flickers; The Yellow- 

 throat; A Family of Grosbeaks; The Red-tailed 

 Hawk; Jack Crow; The Owl, Bird of Night; 

 Rearing a Wren Family; The Weaver of the 

 West; Jimmy the Butcher-bird; The Warbler 

 and His Ways; Kingfishers; Sparrow Row; 

 Two Studies in Blue; Basket Makers, The Vireo 

 and Oriole; Phoebe; A Pair of Cousins — Robin 

 and Thrush; Gull Habits; In a Heron Village; 

 The Eagle of Mission Ridge. 



We feel a sort of pride in looking over this 

 book, for it is a product of the West. Both 

 Mr. Finley and Mr. Bohlman are western 

 students, and the present results of their work 

 is in no way inferior to that of the East or that 

 of Europe. We heartily recommend the book 

 to everyone.- J. G. 



Evolution and Animal Life i an ele- 

 mentary discussion of | facts, processes, laws 

 and theories relating | to the life and evolu- 

 tion of animals | by | David Starr Jordan | 

 President of Leland Stanford Junior Univer- 

 sity I and I Vernon Lyman Kellogg | Pro- 

 fessor of Entomology, and Lecturer in Bionom- 

 ics I in Leland Stanford Junior University | 

 [quotation] | [vignette] | New York | D. Ap- 

 pleton and Company | 1907 [our copy received 

 Oct. T, 1907]; pp. i-xii, 1-490, 3 colored plates 

 (of birds), 298 text figures. 



No person can be a thoroly successful special- 



