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Field Days in California. By Brad- 

 ford Torrey. Houghton Mifflin Com- 

 pany, Boston and New York, 1913. 8vo, 

 2 35 PP-) 9 P^tes. Price $1.50, net. 



This collection of fifteen essays, repub- 

 lished from various periodicals, was re- 

 vised by Mr. Torrey only a few weeks 

 before his death, on October 7, 191 2. The 

 search for the Yellow-billed Magpie and 

 the Condor, studies of the shore birds on 

 the California beaches, and accounts of 

 bird hunts in the Santa Cruz Mountains, 

 the Grand Canon, and among the Red- 

 woods, are related with the simplicity and 

 charm characteristic of this writer's 

 nature sketches. The chapter on 'Reading 

 a Check-List' is commended to those who 

 can find nothing but technicalities in such 

 a work. 



Mr. Torrey's accuracy and care in 

 identification has always been evident in 

 his books, and in his account of a trouble- 

 some Yellow-legs, which seemed too big 

 for the Lesser species and not large enough 

 for the Greater, his remarks should be 

 heeded by the opera-glass student. He 

 says, "If I had been a younger hand at the 

 business, I could probably have decided 

 the question on the instant. Given a cer- 

 tain measure of inexperience, and cer- 

 tainty is about the easiest thing in the 

 world. Why bother one's head with second 

 thoughts? What a man knows, he knows, 

 and there's an end on't. Also I have found 

 that too often what a man knows he 

 doesn't know; and so with age comes slow- 

 ness of decision, with all its disagreeable 

 concomitants." 



An excellent photogravure of Mr. Tor- 

 rey forms the frontispiece, and eight 

 beautiful half-tones from photographs 

 illustrate scenes from localities visited by 

 the author.— W. DeW. M. 



The Practical Value of Birds. By 

 Junius Henderson, University of Colo- 

 rado Bulletin. Vol. XIII, No. 4. Boulder, 

 Colo., April, 1913. 48 pp. 



To say that this is a pamphlet of forty- 

 eight pages gives small idea of the bulk 



of the material it contains, so full of con- 

 densed information is it. This is especially 

 true of the quantities of tables and sum- 

 maries of the results of stomach examina- 

 tions given in the nineteen pages of 'Sys- 

 tematic Discussion.' Under this heading 

 each order of North American birds and 

 each family of North American Passeres 

 is treated separately, with particular 

 reference to the birds of Colorado. This 

 is preceded by sections on 'The Balance 

 of Nature,' 'Rescue of Crops, Foliage and 

 Forests by Birds,' 'Quantities of Food 

 Required by Birds,' 'Methods of Investi- 

 gation,' and 'Necessity of Bird Protec- 

 tion.' The paper closes with a seven-page 

 bibliography of the more important titles 

 on the subject. Nearly every item of 

 information throughout the paper has its 

 source carefully indicated in a footnote. 



The statement that the Cooper's Hawk 

 is "a small species strongly marked with 

 dark stripes below" and that the Sharp- 

 shin is "marked by bars below" is mis- 

 leading. The two species have the under- 

 pays similarly marked, both being 

 streaked when young and barred when 

 adult. We hope no one will attempt to 

 identify and shoot Cooper's Hawks by the 

 description as given, as it applies equally 

 to certain highly beneficial species, the 

 Broadwing for instance. — C. H. R. 



Second Report of the Meriden Bird 

 Club, with brief reports from other New 

 Hampshire Clubs. Poole Printing Com- 

 pany, Boston, Mass. Paper covers, small 

 4to, 82 pp. 18 illustrations and 2 maps. 

 Price $1.00. 



The report of this flourishing society 

 should be read by everyone interested in 

 local bird protection. Short chapters are 

 devoted to methods of feeding birds, bird- 

 houses and baths, and bird enemies. 



An addition to the bird-sanctuary 

 owned by the club is recorded as one of 

 the important events of the past year. 

 Reports from six other recently organized 

 New Hampshire clubs indicate the in- 

 fluence of the Meriden organization and 



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