250 Bird - 
with feather-tubes, which bear at their 
apices the white hair-like tubes of the 
down. The preening instinct has then 
asserted itself, and the horny cases of the 
feather-tubes, giving way to their bases, 
are rapidly combed off by the bill over the 
-greater part of the body. The wing- and 
tail-quills, as well as some of the contour- 
feathers, are released in the usual way, 
centripetally from their tips. 
“7. Fear is attuned to the climbing 
stage, and not to that of flight, as in all 
the common altricious birds, and matures 
with comparative suddenness on the sixth 
day, or shortly before the bird is ready to 
climb. 
“8 Parental instincts are as strong in 
the American Cuckoos as in thrushes or 
in passerine birds generally, and there is 
no more indication of a retrogression to 
parasitism in the former than in the latter. 
“9. The nests of these Cuckoos, though 
slight, are well adapted to their purposes, 
and often long outlast their use. 
“to When disturbed in its nest-activi- 
ties, the Black-bill has been known to 
transfer its eggs to a new nest of its own; 
an action which strongly suggests the prac- 
tice of the European Cuckoo of carrying 
its laid egg in bill to the nest of a nurse. 
“Tz. The American species occasicnally 
‘exchange’ eggs, or lay in other birds’ 
nests, and when so doing the Black-bill 
has been known to struggle for possession 
of the stolen nest. Since similar actions 
have been repeatedly observed in one or 
another degree, in numerous species in 
which no suspicion of parasitism exists, 
and in all parts of the world they must be 
ascribed, in addition to the reasons given 
above, not to ‘stupidity or inadvertence,’ 
or to ‘a tendency towards parasitism,’ 
but to temporary irregularities in the 
rhythms of the reproductive cycle.” 
DISTRIBUTION AND MIGRATION OF SHORE- 
BIRDS. By WetLts W. Cooke, Bulletin 
No. 35, Biological Survey. 100 pages, 
4 plates. 
To his valuable bulletins on the migra- 
tion of Warblers, and of Ducks, Geese and 
Swans, Professor Cooke now adds one on 
Lore 
a group of birds remarkable for the length 
of their semi-annual journeys. This 
bulletin, like its predecessors, is based on 
published records, on specimens, and on 
data from the great corps of volunteer 
observers who, for the past twenty-five 
years, have been contributing their obser- 
vations to the Biological Survey. Both 
the ornithologist and the sportsman are 
to be congratulated on the appearance of 
a publication which places within their 
reach such an unequaled series of author- 
itative records in regard to the movements 
of birds in which both are interested.—F. 
Vir: Y 
The Ornithological Magazines 
Tue AuK.—Readers of the July number 
will be well repaid for the perusal of H. W. 
Henshaw’s Migration of the Pacific Plover 
to and from the Hawaiian Islands, which 
is a most fascinating contribution to the 
subject of bird migration. The fact that 
the Pacific form of the Golden Plover finds 
its way over 2,000 miles of trackless ocean, 
twice in the year, is clearly established, 
and at the same time the writer frankly 
admits that all solutions of how and why 
this migration is accomplished are purely 
hypothetical. Sportsmen and others will 
also be interested in J. C. Phillips’ “Notes 
on the Autumn Migration of the Canada 
Goose in Eastern Massachusetts.’ 
The titles of several faunal lists are 
“Summer and Fall Birds of the Hamlin 
Lake Region, Michigan” by R. W. Chancy; 
‘Notes on the Birds of Pima Co., Arizona,. 
by S. S. Visher; “Notes on the Summer 
Birds of Kentucky and Tennessee,’ by 
A.H. Howell; and ‘Bird Photographing in 
the Carolinas, with an Annotated List of 
the Birds Observed,’ by B. S. Bowdish and 
P. B. Philip. The last is illustrated, but, 
as a rule, these local faunal lists are not 
inspiring. Then, too, there is a. growing 
tendency to include every bird seen or 
heard, while the taking of specimens has 
apparently become a secondary and 
somewhat superfluous matter. It would 
seem, for instance, as if an observer who 
is in doubt about the indentification of a 
Hudsonian Godwit, viewed at binocular 
ee 
