Book News and Reviews 



31 



The list of the late Mr. Kumlien and of 

 Mr. Hollister includes 357 species and sub- 

 species, with more or less extended annota- 

 tions concerning their manner of occurrence 

 and dates of migration. It should prove a 

 most serviceable hand - list of Wisconsin 

 birds. 



Mr. Silloway's 'Birds of Fergus County, 

 Montana," is, in fact, a handbook of the 

 birds of this region. It gives information 

 in regard to the distribution, migration and 

 nesting of the birds treated, as well as brief 

 descriptions which should permit one to 

 identify them. Copies of this useful publi- 

 cation, we note, may be obtained by appli- 

 cation to the author at the Fergus County 

 High School, of Lewistown, Montana. 

 The trustees of this institution are thus to 

 be congratulated not only on publishing an 

 excellent treatise but on making it available 

 to the public without charge. ^F. M. C. 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The Condor. — With the November- 

 December number ' The Condor ' com- 

 pletes its fifth year and, with one exception, 

 the largest volume in its history. The lead- 

 ing article is by E. W. Nelson and con- 

 tains an interesting series of ' Notes on the 

 Mexican Cormorant,' made chiefly in the 

 vicinity of Lake Chapala, Mexico, and il- 

 lustrated with five half-tones. This Cormo- 

 rant seems to be chiefly a fresh- or brackish- 

 water species and ranges from Central 

 America north to southern Illinois. A 

 suggestive paper on ' The Use of Sentinels 

 by Valley Quail,' by Williams, shows how 

 much still remains to be learned about the 

 habits of comparatively well-known birds. 

 ' Notes on the Texan Jay ' are contributed 

 by Howard Lacy, and on ' The Rocky 

 Mountain Screech Owl ' by W. L. Burnett. 



Local lists are represented by the con- 

 cluding part of Osgood's 'List of Birds Ob- 

 served in Cochise County, Arizona,' and 

 Anderson's and Jenkin's ' List of Birds from 

 the Santa Cruz Mts., California.' The list 

 of birds peculiar to Santa Cruz Island is in- 

 creased by the description of a new species, 

 Vireo mailliar Jorum, Orinnell. Two pages 

 of ' Correspondence ' are devoted to a con- 

 tinuance of the discussion of the bontling 



feature of the A. O. U. Model law by Dr. 

 J. A. Allen, E. W. Nelson and the Editor. 

 An improvement has been made in the in- 

 dex, which has been consecutively paged 

 and prepared for binding at the end of the 

 volume, where it properly belongs; but no 

 table of contents or list of illustrations is 

 furnished with the title-page, — an omission 

 which we hope to see supplied in future 

 volumes. — T. S. P. 



Wilson Bulletin. — ^With Number 45 

 the 'Wilson Bulletin' completes the fifteenth 

 volume of a series which began soon after 

 the organization of the Wilson Chapter in 

 1888, and which includes a large amount 

 of valuable ornithological material. 



In an editorial resume the editor touches 

 on the value and pleasures of field work, 

 and suggests that any one having even a 

 limited chance for observation may make a 

 careful study of a few birds. He very prop- 

 erly expresses a wish that in these studies 

 the birds will be considered as such, and 

 not as beings possessed of human attributes 

 and motives. This desire for reform is most 

 welcome and timely, judging from the in- 

 creasing number of misguided or designing 

 enthusiasts who are inclined to discover 

 human characteristics in birds and mam- 

 mals and who are filling the book-shelves 

 with misleading trash at the expense of 

 trustworthy and valuable material. 



Lynds Jones, under the title of 'A Bob- 

 white Covey,' gives an interesting and val- 

 uable account of the formation of the 

 roosting circle of a covey of Bob-whites as 

 described by Robert J. Sim, of Jefferson, 

 Ohio. In "A List of Birds Seen in Franc- 

 onia, N. H., and Vicinity During August 

 and September 1903.' H. E. Porter and 

 others noted 84 species of birds, 11 of 

 which were not mentioned by Faxon and 

 Allen in their paper in 'The Auk' of 1888. 

 These observers, however, recorded 13 

 species not found by the party in 1903. 



Besides a number of general notes, this 

 issue of the 'Bulletin ' contains the follow- 

 ing short papers : ' Bachman Sparrow ' 

 selected from Dawson's ' Birds of Ohio,' 

 'A December Hermit Thrush,' and 'Black 

 Skimmers at Woods Holl, Mass.,' by Lynds 

 Jones— A. K. F. 



