3S8 



Bird - Lore 



McAtee's paper is, in the main, a critical 

 review of these experiments. 



He concludes that (i) "they are 

 very inconsistent;" that (2) "they have 

 been misinterpreted," and that (3) "they 

 are not trustworthy guides to behavior 

 under natural conditions." The last- 

 named objection he dwells upon at length, 

 supporting it with numerous observations 

 made by himself and others, and he con- 

 cludes that "since the feeding habits of 

 an animal in captivity may vary widely 

 from its known habits in the natural 

 state, there is no avoiding the conclusion 

 that the results obtained under experi- 

 mental conditions do not indicate the 

 part the animal might play in natural 

 selection." 



The paper is accompanied by a full 

 bibliography, and is an important con- 

 tribution to a subject in which theory, 

 based on insuificient evidence and ex- 

 pressed in terms of human experience, has 

 long molded current opinion. — F. M. C. 



National Reservations for the Pro- 

 tection OF Wild Life. By T. S. 

 Palmer. Circular No. 87: Biological 

 Survey, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 

 32 pp; 5 text maps. 



The Biological Survej^ renders the cause 

 of the conservation of our wild life a ser- 

 vice of the highest value in issuing, from 

 time to time, small bulletins which so 

 summarize the subject of which they 

 treat that the public is kept informed of 

 the various factors which are potent in 

 this field. Ignorance in regard to the 

 game-laws and of organizations designed 

 to enforce them, for example, has been 

 largely decreased through the widespread 

 circulation and republication of the bulle- 

 tins of the Survey. 



The present Circular lists ninety-live 

 reservations on which wild life is pre- 

 served. Of this number no less than fifty- 

 six are bird-reservations, all of which, 

 beginning with Pelican Island in 1903, 

 have been formed in the past ten years. 

 A feature of this pamphlet of especial 

 value to naturalists is a faunal bibliog- 

 raphy which tells us just what has been 



published about the life of the reserva- 

 tions in question. — F. M. C. 



Annotated List of the Birds of 

 Oneida County, N. Y., and of the 

 West Canada Creek Valley. By 

 Egbert Bagg. Trans. Oneida Hist. 

 Soc. XII, 1912; pages 16-85. 



Since its appearance in 1886, Ralph and 

 Baggs' 'Birds of Oneida County' has been 

 the standard faunal paper of the birds of 

 that part of New York state. The junior 

 and surviving author now brings the list 

 up to date, adding t,^ species to the 224 

 contained in the original publication, and 

 much additional information in regard to 

 distribution and habits. 



The species included are grouped 

 in the introductory chapter as follows: 

 Residents, 27; summer residents, 118; 

 transients, 27; winter visitants, 12; acci- 

 dental visitants, 28. 



Dr. Bagg's intimate knowledge for ov€r 

 a quarter of a century of the bird-life of 

 the region of which he writes, places him 

 in a position to compare with authority 

 present and past conditions, but we do not 

 find such a comparison in his excellent 

 paper. — F. M. C. 



The Birds of God. Parallels of Man in 

 the Feathered Creation. A Portfolio 

 of Anecdotes. By Theron Brown. 

 Boston. Am. Humane Society. 191 2. 

 i6mo. 318 pp. 5 col. pits. 



This is a collection of short stories or 

 incidents designed to illustrate the effect 

 of birds on the mind of man in the forma- 

 tion of myths and legends, in establishing 

 certain emblems, in pointing a moral or 

 adorning a tale. The book contains 

 much that is of interest and should appeal 

 particularly to those whose sympathy 

 with birds leads them to see much that is 

 human in bird-life. — F. M. C. 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The Auk. — The contents of the July 

 'Auk' are unusually varied. In 'Bird 

 Genealogy,' by Dr. C. W. Townsend, 

 some evidences of their ancestry are 



