Book News and Reviews 



249 



The Hawks, injurious and beneficial, are 

 treated in another chapter. There are 

 also several pages on bird-migration, and 

 accounts of the Wild Turkey and Prairie 

 Chicken.— W. DeW. M. 



Cassinia: Proceedings of the Delaware 

 Valley Ornithological Club, No. XVI, 

 1912. Philadelphia, Pa. 8vo, 72 pp., 

 1 plate. 



The series of biographical sketches of 

 early Philadelphia ornithologists, by Wit- 

 mer Stone, is continued with an account 

 of George Archibald McCall, illustrated 

 with his photograph. Mr. Stone concludes 

 that "General McCall played no small 

 part in building up our knowledge of the 

 North American avifauna; although, like 

 many other field naturalists, he had no 

 selfish desire to gain notoriety by publish- 

 ing all his notes over his own name, but 

 gave the results of his experience cheer- 

 fully to others, who could use them in the 

 advancement of his favorite science." 



W. W. Cooke contributes an article on 

 'Bird-Migration in Pennsylvania a Hun- 

 dred Years Ago.' He compares the migra- 

 tion dates of twenty-one species, as re- 

 corded by Dr. Benjamin S. Barton, in 

 1 79 1, with the average dates of arrival in 

 late years, and concludes that the birds 

 have not changed their times of spring 

 arrival in the last hundred years. 



A 'Preliminary Report on Roosting 

 Habits of the Purple Grackle in the Dela- 

 ware Valley' is furnished by Julian K. 

 Potter, based on the observations of him- 

 self and nine other members of the Club. 



An interesting article on the great nest- 

 ing of the Passenger Pigeon in Pennsyl- 

 vania in 1886 is reprinted from the "New 

 York Times" of May 9, 1886. While at 

 that time there was a state law in force 

 prohibiting the capture of the Wild Pigeon 

 in their nesting season, the law was wholly 

 disregarded and not a single arrest of an 

 offender was made. Strict enforcement of 

 the statute at that time might have ma- 

 terially altered the subsequent history 

 of this virtually extinct species. 



Spencer Trotter writes of the days before 

 the founding of the Delaware Valley Club, 



giving his recollections of the local orni- 

 thologists and collectors of that period. 



Under 'General Notes' are included 

 records of unusual occurrences for 191 2, 

 and a list of forty-one species observed 

 at Moorestown, N. J., on December 25. 

 The 'Report of the Spring Migration of 

 191 2,' and miscellaneous records, are un- 

 usually full, occupying twenty-two pages. 



The number closes with the 'Abstract 

 of the Proceedings of the D. V. O. C, 

 191 2,' 'Club Notes,' Bibliography 191 2,' 

 and a list of the officers and members of 

 the Club.— W. DeW. M. 



Life and Adventures of Audubon, the 

 Naturalist. By Robert Buchanan. J. 

 M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., London, and 

 E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. Small 

 8vo. 335 pp. Price, cloth, net, 35 cents; 

 leather, 70 cents. 



To the bird-lover this volume is a par- 

 ticularly welcome addition to the Every- 

 man's Library. The work consists chiefly 

 of extracts from the journals of Audubon, 

 connected by the editor into a running 

 narrative. 



An essay by John Burroughs, originally 

 published in the New York Nation, in 

 1869, forms the introduction. 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The Auk. — The July number opens with 

 W. Stone's 'Bird-Migration Records of 

 William Bartram, 1802-1822,' the same 

 being a reproduction, in part, with notes 

 by Mr. Stone, of an old diary kept by this 

 naturalist of the early days. Simplified 

 spellers should read and take heart, while 

 synonymists may also find something new. 

 The close correspondence of the dates 

 of arrival of birds a century ago as com- 

 pared with modern time is striking. 



'Concerning the Flight of Gulls,' by A. 

 Forbes, is a contribution to the problem 

 of soaring or gliding, about which there 

 are many opinions to explain well-known 

 facts. A gliding bird is still a far better 

 heavier-than-air machine than is an 

 aeroplane, probably because flight has 

 been practised by birds a good many more 

 years than it has by men. 



