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Life Histories of North American 

 Diving Birds. By Arthur Cleve- 

 land Bent. United States National 

 Museum, Bulletin 107, Washington, 

 D. C;, iQTQ. 8vo, 239 pages, 43 half- 

 tone and 12 color plates. 



In 1910 Mr. Bent undertook to continue 

 the work on the life-histories of North 

 American birds so ably begun by Maj. 

 Charles E. Bendire, and cut short a 

 number of years previous by that author's 

 death. This is the first of a series of 

 volumes in preparation. Grouping to- 

 gether the diving birds, Grebes, Loons, 

 and Auks, to follow the present edition of 

 the A. O. U. Check-list, generally admitted 

 to be unsatisfactory as regards structure 

 or true relationship, is a convenient classi- 

 fication when life-histories are dealt with. 

 After a few introductory remarks where 

 these seem desirable, the life-history of 

 each species is written in substantially 

 the following scheme: Spring migration, 

 courtship, nesting habits, eggs, young, se- 

 quence of plumages to maturity, seasonal 

 molts, feeding habits, flight, swimming 

 and di\dng habits, vocal powers, behavior, 

 enemies, fall migration, and winter habits. 

 A final paragraph, and a very valuable 

 one, gives actual range of dates for eggs, 

 and, where a number of such are avail- 

 able, the narrower range where most of 

 them fall. The half-tone plates comprise a 

 frontispiece of the egg of the Great Auk 

 and illustrations mostly of nests and eggs, 

 breeding birds, young and nesting-sites. 

 The color plates illustrate the egg of each 

 species and in some cases more than one 

 egg to show variation. 



The preparation of such a work has 

 necessitated going over a vast amount of 

 literature. The author has had able assis- 

 tance in mechanical detail, in the investiga- 

 tion of the less-known species, and in 

 contributions from other observers con- 

 cerning species with which they are 

 particularly familiar or have made an 

 especial study of, for which due credit is 

 given. But the excellence of the volume 



(37 



seems to be primarily due to his indefatig- 

 able industry in field and study, and to 

 his detailed and comprehensive knowledge 

 of North American birds, which make it 

 unquestionably one of the most important 

 recent contributions to North American 

 ornithology. 



It is customary in textbooks on orni- 

 thology, after technical descriptions and 

 measurements and statements as to range 

 and migration, to give a short biographical 

 sketch or pen-picture of each species in 

 life. This aids the student in the identifica- 

 tion of the living bird and helps him to 

 place it in the scheme of nature when he 

 has met it perhaps for the first time in the 

 field. For such biographical material it is 

 surprising how frequently one has to go 

 back to early writers. How far special 

 investigation along certain lines has out- 

 stripped a general knowledge! If the 

 succeeding volumes of Mr. Bent's work are 

 equal to the first one, we shall have a 

 thoroughly up-to-date treatise to refer to 

 in these matters. 



The text is full of apt quotations regard- 

 ing life-histories from a great many 

 sources, but is in no sense a compilation of 

 what is known of the birds' habits — -rather 

 a picture graphically setting forth the 

 place of each species in nature. There is 

 much original matter and a good deal of 

 the text has literary merit. It is to be 

 regretted that the color plates of eggs 

 have not been made more attractive in 

 a work which will have so wide a popular 

 appeal. A bird's egg is per se a very beauti- 

 ful thing, but the sickly yellowish back- 

 ground of the plates, which may be a good 

 one to bring out color-values, spoils the 

 pleasure of looking at them, and the eggs 

 themselves appear flat. The paragraphs 

 on range and migration have been pre- 

 pared with a great deal of care and give a 

 more concise statement of summer and 

 winter ranges of each species and its 

 general movements to and from than can 

 be found elsewhere. In many cases there is 



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