2^ooik Ji^etos; anb Ctebiettwf 



A Review of the Ornithology of Min- 

 nesota. By Thomas Sadler Roberts, 

 M.D., Professor of Ornithology and 

 Curator of the Zoological Museum in 

 the University of Minnesota. Research 

 Publications of the University of Min- 

 nesota, VII, No. 2, May, 1919. 12 mo, 

 vi-|-io2 pages, i map, 47 half-tones, 

 chiefly from photographs by the author. 

 Price 25 cents. 



Dr. Roberts has succeeded in placing 

 between the covers of this booklet a 

 surprising amount of information concern- 

 ing the bird-life of Minnesota. The life- 

 zones or faunal areas of the state are out- 

 lined and mapped, and their character- 

 istics described, a synopsis of the avi- 

 fauna is followed by an annotated check-list 

 of the birds known to occur in the state, 

 to which is added lists of 'introduced,' 

 'unsettled,' 'extirpated,' 'vanishing,' and 

 'hypothetical' species. State and federal 

 game laws are given; there is a chapter on 

 wild-life refuges, one on 'outlawed' birds, 

 and an 'Abridged Bibliography.' 



The list is accompanied by an unusually 

 interesting series of photographs, chiefly 

 from nature by the author. The whole 

 makes a practical and attractive little 

 pocket manual, handy as a reference 

 check-list for the student and well designed 

 to hold the attention of those whose 

 inherent interest in birds has lain dormant 

 for lack of the very kind of an awakening 

 this book will give them. 



The state of Minnesota is fortunate in 

 possessing an official who, by publications 

 of this kind, is bringing to her citizens a 

 knowledge of their assets in bird-life. — 

 F. M. C. 



A Synoptical List of the Accipitres 

 (Diurnal Birds of Prey). Part I (Sar- 

 corhamphus to Accipiter). By H. Kirke 

 Swann, F.Z.S. London: John Wheldon 

 & Co., 38 Great Queens Street. 8vo, 

 38 pages. 



Systematic ornithologists will welcome 

 this useful publication on a group of 

 birds which has not been treated as a whole 



(3 



since the first volume of the great Cata- 

 logue of Birds of the British Museum was 

 issued, that monument to the industry of 

 Bowdler Sharpe and his colleagues. 



Diagnostic characters are given for 

 species and races as well as for the higher 

 groups; there is a reference to the original 

 place of description, to which, unfortu- 

 nately, is not added a statement of the 

 type-locality. — F . M . C . 



A Practical Handbook of British 

 Birds. Edited by H. F. Witherby. 

 Part III, pp. 129-208. June 18, 1919. 



The first two parts of this standard 

 work were reviewed in the last number of 

 Bird-Lore, where we neglected to state 

 that this book is published by Witherby 

 & Co., 326 High Holborn, London, W. 

 C. I, at 4 .y. per part. The present part 

 treats of the Buntings, Larks, Pipits, and 

 Wagtails.— F. M. C. 



Cassinia, a Bird Annual. — This, 

 the twenty-second annual resume of the 

 proceedings of the Delaware Valley 

 Ornithological Club, gives, like its pred- 

 ecessors, an attractive picture of the 

 activities of that virile organization. 

 The average attendance at the thirteen 

 meetings of 1918 was twenty-two members 

 and one visitor (in one club we know of it 

 is more apt to be one member and twenty- 

 two visitors!), figures which, in connec- 

 tion with the program given for each 

 meeting, indicate sustained interest in 

 the club's proceedings. 



Several of the papers presented are 

 published in this annual, among them one 

 on 'The Birthplace of John Cassin,' by 

 F. H. Shelton, abstracts from the journals 

 of Andreas Hesselius for the years 1711- 

 1724; and a 'Report on the Spring Migra- 

 tion of 1918' compiled by Witmer Stone. 



It is a great pity that D. V. O. C's 

 with their 'Annuals' cannot be established 

 throughout the land. Why should Phila- 

 delphia have a 'corner' on organizations 

 of this character? — F, M, C. 



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