Book News and Reviews 



lOI 



brief notes on haunts, habits, food, abun- 

 dance and time of arrival. The last two 

 have reference to the species in Massachu- 

 setts. Notes, nest and breeding range in 

 New England are treated in a few words 

 under separate headings. About one-fourth 

 of the species are represented by small out- 

 line illustrations.— W. DeW. M. 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The Auk. — A timely criticism of ' nature- 

 books ' attracts our attention in the April 

 'Auk.' W. M. Wheeler, writing on ' The 

 Obligations of the Student of Animal Be- 

 havior,' says, that "all we can really per- 

 ceive of animal behavior is certain move- 

 ments of the creatures in time and space. 

 As soon as we attempt to assign causes to 

 these movements we at once pass into the 

 province of pure inference." Here is food 

 for reflection which may not be altogether 

 palatable for some who have wielded the 

 pen of late years in combining science and 

 fiction. H. Oldys, writing on ' The Rhyth- 

 mical Song of the Wood Pewee,' considers 

 it as taking "higher technical rank than 

 any other known example of bird music." 

 His reduction of it to musical notation is, 

 however, like all attempts of this kind, emi- 

 nently unsatisfactory for any one who has 

 ever heard the bird. 



A. C. Bent continues his article on the 

 ' Nesting Habits of the Herodioncs in 

 Florida,' showing admirable photographs 

 that evidently represent much expenditure 

 of energy in the taking. On the whole, 

 the Herons protected from the plume- 

 hunters would not seem to be in immediate 

 danger of extermination. Not so, the 

 Masked Bob-white of Arizona, which, 

 according to H. Brown, survives only in 

 Mexico, although not persecuted for feathers. 

 The title 'Curve-billed and Palmer's 

 Thrashers,' by J. H. Clark, is misleading, 

 for the paper deals only with the nests and 

 eggs of these two birds. It is illustrated. 



The perennial local list is much in evi- 

 dence, one by R. E. Snodgrass, on birds of 

 the state of Washington, one by G. Eifrig, 

 on those of western Maryland, and one by 

 G. F. Breninger, on those of San Clemente 



Island, California. The status of the 

 western form of Lincoln's Sparrow is dis- 

 cussed by J. Grinnell; there are valuable 

 reviews — one on that classic of North Ameri- 

 can ornithology, Coues' ' Key to North 

 American Birds ' — and the general notes are 

 numerous. — J. D., Jr. 



The Condor. — The opening article in 

 the March April number of 'The Condor' 

 contains an interesting description of the 

 habits of ' Two Oregon Warblers,' by W. 

 L. Finley, and is illustrated by reproduc- 

 tions of five striking photographs by Bohl- 

 man, showing the Black-throated Gray 

 Warbler and the Western Yellow Throat 

 feeding their young. A brief account of 

 the ' Nesting Habits of the Black-headed 

 Grosbeak ' is contributed by Anna Head, 

 and a description of ' A Sandhill Crane's 

 Nest' in Gunnison county, Colorado, by 

 E. R. Warren. 



Under the title ' Destruction of Birds by 

 Wires,' Emerson describes the havoc 

 wrought among the smaller shore birds by 

 two telephone wires strung across the marsh 

 near Haywards, Cal., at a height just suffi- 

 cient to catch the flocks of Sandpipers and 

 Phalaropes passing from the feeding- 

 grounds in one pond to another. Forty 

 dead birds were picked up in one day and 

 thirty the next. 



Notes on 49 species of ' Midwinter Birds 

 at Palm Springs, California,' are given by 

 Grinnell, who calls attention to this locality 

 as probably one of the best in the state for 

 observing the migration of land-birds. The 

 status of ' The Elf Owl in California ' is 

 firmly established by Herbert Brown, who 

 describes the finding of two nests with eggs 

 at Duncan Flats, about 25 miles north of 

 Yuma, in May, 1903. This interesting 

 species, first described from a specimen col- 

 lected at Fort Mohave, Ariz., in 1861, 

 seems to be limited in its distribution in 

 Arizona and California by the range of the 

 giant cactus, which is found on the west 

 side of the Colorado river at only a few 

 points. The first part of a paper entitled 

 'Nevada Notes,' based on observations 

 made along the Humboldt river in the sum- 

 mer of 1903, is contributed by W. C. 



