A Critique of Barrows' " Michigan Bird Life." 2? 



A CRITIQUE OF BARROWS' "MICHIGAN BIRD 



LIFE." 



BY BRADSHAW H. SWALES 



Museum of Natural History, University of Michigan. 



The recent appearance (July, 1912) of Barrows' book on 

 the birds of Michigan ^ marks an important epoch in the his- 

 tory of Michigan ornithology, if not in that o^f the entire re- 

 gion bordering the Great Lakes. Viewed as a whole the 

 ornithology of the several states in this region has been but 

 superficially studied; in certainly the majority of the coun- 

 ties composing each state there has either been no field work 

 by competent ornithologists, or what has been done is very 

 inadequate when measured by present standards. 



In Michigan there have been only a few careful and com- 

 petent men and their work has mainly been done at a few 

 places in the state, viz., Ann Arbor, Detroit, Grand Rapids, 

 Kalamazoo, and Lansing. The biological expeditions of the 

 University of Michigan Museum and the Michigan Geolog- 

 ical and Biological Survey have added considerable data for 

 certain areas, viz., the Porcupine Mountains, Ontonagon 

 County ; Isle Royale, in northwestern Lake Superior ; the 

 south shore of Saginaw Bay, Huron County ; the Brown 

 Lake region, in Dickinson County ; the Charity Islands of 

 Saginaw Bay, and Whitefish Point, in Chippewa County, but 

 much remains to be done, especially in the northern peninsula 

 and the entire upper half of the lower peninsula. The breed- 

 ing ranges of a number of species will undoubtedly be ma- 

 terially extended by studies in these sections. 



The ornithology of Michigan has also sufifered from the 

 publication of records made by unreliable observers. In some 

 instances the questionable records may be checked. up by dis- 

 counting them in proportion to the experience of the ob- 

 servers and the chances of error in identifying the species, 



^ Michigan Bird Life, by Walter Bradford Barrows. Special Bul- 

 letin of Zoology and Physiology of the Michigan Agricultural Col- 

 lege. 1912. 



