Book News and Reviews 



51 



The local lists are numerous, comprising 

 one on the summer birds of the St. John 

 valley, New Brunswick; a similar one, by 

 Mr. Edw. Arnold, on those of Newfound- 

 land; and still another, by Mr. H. B. 

 Bailey, on those of the mountains of Vir- 

 ginia. Mr. D. Iseley also has 'A List of 

 the Birds of Sedgwick Co., Kansas' — 208 

 in all. There are, besides, some general 

 notes, by several authors, that help fill 

 out earlier lists. 



Mr. J. Grinnell, under title 'A Name for 

 the Hawaiian Linnet' calls it Carpodacus 

 mutans, and Mr. John Sage presents his 

 report on the twenty-ninth meeting of the 

 A. O. U., recently held in Philadelphia. — 

 J- D., Jr. 



The Condor. — The last two numbers of 

 volume XIII of 'The Condor' are more 

 than usually replete with interesting 

 notes on water birds contained in accounts 

 of trips to the Farallones, Anacopa and 

 Santa Cruz Islands, and San Jacinto Lake, 

 California; San Quentin Bay, Lower 

 California; and the Barr Lakes, Colorado. 



The September number opens, with a 

 brief description, by M. E. Peck, of a 

 hybrid Mountain and Valley Quail, 

 secured April i, 191 1, near Burns, Oregon. 

 A. B. Howell's paper on 'Some Birds of the 

 San Quentin Bay Region,' mentions 

 "scores of thousands" of Cormorants on 

 San Martin Island, April 26, 1910, and the 

 fact that the Black Brant is present in 

 incredible numbers during the winter 

 months at this the southernmost point of 

 its range. Warren's 'Colorado Horned 

 Owl Notes' are based on observations 

 made in 1901 and 1902 near Paonia, on the 

 North Fork of the Gunnison River. 

 Willett and Jay's 'May Notes from San 

 Jacinto Lake' contain important breeding 

 records of the Red-head Duck and Least 

 Bittern. In Swarth's 'Field Notes from 

 South-Central California,' in Kern and 

 San Luis Obispo counties, are several 

 additions to our knowledge of the dis- 

 tribution of typical desert birds in the 

 San Joaquin Valley, notably Leconte's 

 Thrasher, which was found eight miles 

 north of Bakersfield and at McKittrick 



on the southwestern border of the valley. 

 Burt's 'Early Spring Trip to Anacapa 

 Island,' made in March, 191 1, notes the 

 presence of Brown Pelicans in consider- 

 able numbers at the same place where the 

 birds were found the previous season. As 

 many of the birds were seen carrying sea 

 weed, for repairing their old nests, the 

 records of the birds nesting on the Santa 

 Barbara Islands, both in 1910 and 1911, 

 are reasonably satisfactory. Among the 

 brief notes, Dawson records the capture of 

 an Ovenbird and a Black-throated Green 

 Warbler on the Farallones, on May 29, 

 both species 'new to the state;' and Lin- 

 ton, the capture of two live Man-o'-war- 

 birds at Long Beach, on June 13, 1911. 

 The November number is, in reality, a 

 double number, and brings the volume up 

 to the size of that of its predecessors. 

 Dawson's 'Another Fortnight on the 

 Farallones,' with its observations on 

 forty-three species, is a notable contri- 

 bution to the list of papers on this far- 

 famed bird colony. The California 

 Murre, instead of being the most abund- 

 ant species on South Farallon, is given 

 third rank, with an estimated number of 

 20,000; while the Ashy Petrel, here named 

 Coues Petrel, is given second rank, and 

 Cassin's Auklet, whose numbers are 

 estimated at not less than 100,000, is 

 placed first. A few Kaeding's Petrels 

 were present, and the colony of Farallon 

 Cormorants on Maintop, always small, 

 was found to be reduced to about thirty- 

 five pairs. Kennedy describes 'Some 

 Robins' and Mourning Doves' Nests in 

 the Lower Yakima Valley;' Rockwell 

 denotes the second part of his 'Nesting 

 Notes on the Ducks of the Bair Lake 

 Region, Colo.,' chiefly to the Pintail and 

 Red-head, both of which species have 

 increased in recent years; and Howell and 

 Van Rossen contribute 'Further Notes 

 from Santa Cruz Island,' supplementing 

 Linton's list of 1908. Bryant's paper, 

 entitled 'Relation of Birds to an Insect 

 Outbreak in Northern California,' is an 

 unusually interesting contribution to 

 economic ornithology. — T. S. P. 



