Mar., 1908 



PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED 



97 



the above-titled brochure bids fair to pass the 

 standard set by the various other English 

 Monografs of recent years. All the known 

 species of Petrels, Shearwaters and Albatrosses 

 will be dealt with in the completed work, so 

 that for this Order of birds it becomes our 

 standard text. The first part treats of 24 species 

 of the Genera Procellaria, Halocyptena, Oceano- 

 droma, Oceanites, Garrodia, Pelagodroma, Pealea, 

 and Cymodroma. Of these the Genus Oceano- 

 droma is the only one represented on the 

 western coast of North America north of the 

 Mexican boiindary, and, moreover, it is the 

 largest Genus, containing no less than thirteen 

 recognized species. 



Leucorhoa, beali, beldingi, keadingi, macro- 

 daciyla, melania, homochroa, ^nonorhis (;=the 

 socorroensis of our lists) , hornbyi, and fitrcata 

 are the species of Oceanodroma accredited to 

 the eastern north Pacific. O. hornbyi contin- 

 ues to be known only from the type specimen 

 now in the British Museum, and "said to have 

 been obtained in the seas off the north-western 

 coast of America." Mr. Godman evidently 

 resents the action of the A. O. U. Committee 

 in placing the species on the Hypothetical List, 

 ' 'as if the correctness of the habitat were not 

 credited. ' ' But he further says, ' 'unfortu- 

 nately, after the manner of the times, no 

 original label was attached to the specimen. ' ' 

 However, until the species is rediscovered, it 

 seems to us the course of the A. O. U. Com- 

 mittee is best followed. The lately described 

 O. monorhis chapniani as well as the older O. 

 socorroensis are both considered by the author 

 as identical with the O. monorhis of Swinhoe, 

 described in 1867 from China, thus giving the 

 species an extremely wide range. Mr. God- 

 man seems to have taken great pains in work- 

 ing over the literature of the subject and pre- 

 senting the reader with selected biographical 

 and exact distributional data. The beautiful 

 hand-colored plates are perhaps the most at- 

 tractive feature of the work. — ^J. G. 



Geographic Variation in Birds, with 

 EsPEciAi, Reference to the Effects of 

 Humidity by C. WiIvLIAM BeEbe, Curator of 

 Birds, New York Zoological Park {Zoologica: 

 N. Y. Zool. Soc, Vol. I, No. 1, September 25, 

 1907; 41 pages, 6 figures.) 



Mr. Beebe first takes up the historical phase 

 of the subject, giving quotations from many 

 eminent biologists who have studied geo- 

 graphic variation. Several of these quoted 

 statements are diametrically opposed to one 

 another, and the reader is left with the impres- 

 sion that the subject is as yet largely theoret- 

 ical. The consensus of opinion seems to be, 

 however, that humidity does affect the color of 

 animals, those in the more humid parts of the 

 earth being as a rule " darker than those in the 

 arid regions. Many interesting examples of 



the supposed effect of humidity on coloration 

 are cited, and these bear out well the above 

 statement. 



Dichromatism is discussed in the second 

 division of the paper. In several cases, for in- 

 stance in Gallinago gallinago and Chen hyper- 

 boreus, the dark phase is shown to inhabit a 

 restricted and humid locality, whereas the 

 light phase is more migratory and is widely 

 distributed. This is also the case with the 

 Black Hawk, the dark phase of the Rough- 

 legged Hawk; but when dichromatism in the 

 Jaegers is taken into account, no geographical 

 explanation is possible, since the "distinction 

 depends neither on age, sex, or season," and 

 light birds frequently mate with those in the 

 dark phase. Felis otica, the South American 

 jaguar, and Felis par-dus, the leopard of Asia, 

 present instances of dark individuals in the 

 more humid portions of their respective coun- 

 tries; in the Mountain Sheep of the western 

 United States black individuals are frequently 

 seen, tho moisture in this case could have noth- 

 ing to do with it. In conclusion the author 

 says that these points will be cleared up only 

 by the study of ecological conditions surround- 

 ing the species in question, and by experimen- 

 tation on individuals "with climatal factors 

 modified. ' ' 



More problems are presented by Part III, 

 which considers the subject of sporadic melan- 

 ism. Several examples are given and dis- 

 cussed. 



Part IV and V deal with experiments car- 

 ried on by Mr. Beebe himself. Three young 

 Wood Thrushes, Hylocichla mustelina, were 

 taken from a nest and brought up by hand. 

 Two of the birds lived long enough for the 

 completion of a satisfactory experiment. One 

 was kept in an outdoor aviary where conditions 

 were as nearly normal as possible, while the 

 other was confined in a superhumid atmos- 

 phere. This bird had not quite completed its 

 second annual molt when it died. It showed 

 a very marked darkening of the breast and 

 side feathers, with a "tendency toward albin- 

 ism" in the primaries and rectrices, whereas 

 the outdoor bird was to all appearances in per- 

 fectly normal plumage. 



Two White-throated Sparrows were treated in 

 a like manner. At the end of three years the 

 plumage of the indoor bird was "melanistic to 

 an extreme degree, ' ' while that of the other 

 was normal. 



Similar experiments carried on with Scar- 

 dafella inca, the Inca Dove, are considered in 

 Part V. At the outset the geographical modi- 

 fications of the wild genus Scardafella as it is 

 traced from Arizona and Texas south thru 

 Mexico to Brazil are considered. When a 

 typical Scardafella inca is confined six months 

 before the annual postnuptial molt, and exam- 



