46 



THE OOLOQI8T 



"Food Habits of Seven Species of 

 American Shoal-water Ducks" 



"Food Habits of Seven Species of 

 American Slioal-water Ducks." U. S. 

 Dept. of A G. R. Bull. 862. Profes- 

 sional paper Dec. 1920, by Douglas C. 

 Mabbott. 



, This review of tlie food habits of the 

 Gadwell, Baldpate, European Widgeon, 

 Green-winged Teal, Blue Winged Teal, 

 Cinnamon Teal, Pin-tail Wood Duck, 

 is an exhaustive compilation of the 

 knowledge, at present available on this 

 subject and tlie results obtained are 

 surprising in several instances. The 

 total number of stomachs examined 

 was 2888, and, in each specie the dif- 

 ferent foods consumed are reduced to 

 decimal fractions. It is illustrated by 

 some not overly good plates, but the 

 scientific portion of the work is excel- 

 lent.— R. M. B. 



A LIST OF THE Bl RDS OF JAMAICA 



This publication is created from 

 "The Hand Book of Jamaica for 

 1920." Outram Bangs and Frederic H. 

 Kennard are the authors which fact 

 vouches for its reliability, 219 species 

 and sub-species are noted, of which 

 26 are doubt ful records or escapes 

 from captivity. 81 are migrants of 

 winter visitors from the North. 5 are 

 summer visitors, some breeding, but 

 going South in winter and 52 are resi- 

 dent breeding species, not wholly con- 

 fined to the island of which 5 are now 

 supposed to be extinct. The introduc- 

 tion of the Mongoorse into the islands 

 is supposed to account for these ex- 

 tinctions as well as the near extinction 

 of other species and the great reduc- 

 tion in numbers of many other va- 

 rieties. As no list of the birds of this 

 island is available since Sclater's list 

 of 1910 the present paper is timely. 



— R. M. B. 



Henry W. Shoemaker, of McElhat- 

 tan. Pa., author of "Pennsylvania Deer 



and Their Horns, Etc.", member of 

 the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 

 and Vice-President of "Wild Life 

 League of Pennsylvania," wlio is now 

 located at 71 Broadway, New York 

 City, N. Y., sends us the following 

 publications of which he is the autlaor. 

 "1. A Pennsylvania Bison Hunt. — 

 1915. 



2. Pennsylvania Wild Cats.— 1916. 



3. Pennsylvania's Grandest Cavern. 



The History, Legends and Descrip- 

 tion of Pennsylvania' Cave, in Center 

 County, Pennsylvania. — 1919. 



South Mountain Sketches.— 1920." 

 These books are a desirable addition 

 to any library having to do with 

 Pennsylvania Natural History. They 

 are written with a purpose and not 

 too technical a style, rare and yet con- 

 tain a great fund of really scientific 

 information. — R. M. B. 



THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS 



The first 15 days of February have 

 been like spring, and many of the mi- 

 gratory birds have been seen in small 

 numbers. 



I have seen the following: 



Feb. 5th. A pair of Red-tailed 

 Hawks, and heard their low cry. 



Feb. 6th. Six Robins. 



Feb. 7th. Two House Wrens. 



Feb. 7th. Fourteen Wild Geese 



Feb. 8th. Nine Robins. 



Feb. 9th. Four Red-tailed Hawks. 



Feb. 14th. One Turkey Buzzard. 



Feb. 15th. Two Mourning Doves. 

 J. Earl Harlow, 

 Texico, Illinois 



CORPUS CHRISTI BAY, BIRD LIFE 



While out at Flower Bluff near Cor- 

 pus Christi, Texas, on the Bay, I was 

 surprised to see the large amount of 

 water birds. Pelicans, both Brown and 

 White were plentiful, shore birds of 

 all discriptions, not so many Ducks, 



