Reviews, Notices, Etc. 75


printed from the tenth Annual Report of the New York Zoological

Society, on the Swans, only seven species of which, at the present

time, inhabit the earth. These he divides into three groups;

first the Black Swan of Australia; second the Black-necked Swan

of Southern South America ; and third the remaining five species

of purely white Swans inhabiting the arctic regions of both

hemispheres, viz., The Whooper, Bewick's and the Mute Swans

of the Old World, and the Trumpeter and Whistling Swans of

the New World. Of these seven species six are grouped in the

one genus Cygnus, and the remaining species, the Black Swan is

accorded a genus of its own — Chenopsis.


The author of this paper gives full accounts of the habits of

each species, so far as is known, and some capital illustrations.


At the time of writing all seven species were represented

in the New York Zoological Park.



THE AMERICAN WOOD DUCK.


We have already called attention in this journal to the

series of excellent publications on the more important American

birds, issued by the United States Department of Agriculture.


The latest of these, which forms Bulletin No. 26 of the

Biological Survey, deals with the distribution and migration of

North American Ducks, Geese and Swans, and is written by Mr.

Wells W. Cooke, assistant in the Biological Survey. It contains

no less than S7 pages of letterpress and a good index.


With the increase of population, the reclaiming of marsh

lands and the habit of shooting the birds after the pairing

season has commenced, the wildfowl of almost all species have

decreased in many cases to an alarming extent, and strict

protection is advocated. No species has suffered more than the

Wood Duck, so well known to us in this country as the Summer

or Carolina Duck, Aix sponsa, one of the most beautiful ducks

in existence. Of this species the author writes: "It is a sad

commentary on our present system of game protection that the

Wood Duck, one of the handsomest of our native birds, and one

whose breeding range is almost entirely within our boundaries,

is the species which has suffered most. So persistently has this

duck been pursued that in some sections it has been practically'



