Book News and Reviews 



313 



welcomed not only as a contribution to 

 ornithological literature, but as a possible 

 means of stimulating bird study in a 

 state which, strangely enough, has 

 shown but little interest in her assets in 

 bird-life. 



The numerous half-tones are from 

 photographs of nests in nature, and the 

 fourteen colored plates by E. L. Poole 

 introduce us very pleasantly to a bird- 

 artist who evidently has more than 

 average ability. — F. M. C. 



The Natural History of the Toronto 

 Region, Ontario, Canada. Edited by 

 J. H. Fault. Canadian Institute, 1913. 

 i2mo. 419 pp., 7 half-tones, 5 maps. 

 Price, $2. 



Although prepared by the Canadian 

 Institute primarily for the members of 

 the Twelfth Geological Congress, this 

 volume may be commended to any sec- 

 tional natural history society as a model 

 for the treatment of its local flora and 

 fauna. 



In addition to historical, ethnological 

 and geological sketches, the work con- 

 tains chapters on Climate, Life-zones, 

 Seed Plants, Ferns, Mosses and Liver- 

 worts, Mushrooms and other Fungi, 

 Algae, Lichens, Mycetozoa, Insect Galls, 

 Zoology, Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Am- 

 phibia, Fishes, Invertebrates other than 

 Insects, and Mollusks, Mollusca, Insects 

 and their allies. 



The Chapter on Birds (pp. 212-237), 

 by J. H. Fleming (who also writes on 

 mammals) forms a list of 292 species and 

 subspecies, with brief annotations on their 

 manner of occurrence and comparative 

 numbers. 



An authoritative work of this kind 

 should not only arouse, stimulate and con- 

 centrate interest in the study of nature in 

 the region to which it refers, but it makes 

 a capital book of reference for faunal 

 naturalists everywhere. — F. M. C. 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The W arblee - — The Seventh Volume 

 of 'The Warbler,' published September 1, 



1913, at Floral Park, N. Y., is the first 

 to be issued since October, 1910. It con- 

 tains 34 pages of text, and two colored 

 plates, the first of which figures the eggs of 

 the Knot, the second, the immature 

 plumage of the Carolina Paroquet. 



The articles include 'A Theoretical 

 Analysis of the Colors of Familiar War- 

 blers,' by John Treadwell Nichols, who 

 concludes that the colors of these birds 

 "are by no means a haphazard product of 

 evolution, but are controlled or deter- 

 mined by natural selection, or some other 

 force which is constantly adapting the 

 bird to its complicated environment," a 

 view susceptible of several interpreta- 

 tions; 'A Nesting Season in Nova Scotia,' 

 by Harold F. Tufts;' 'A Collecting Trip 

 to Little Diomede Island,' by johan 

 Koran; 'Notes on the Nesting of Bob- 

 white at Flowerfield, L. I., by John Lewis 

 Childs, where it is a pleasure to read this 

 bird is so abundant that seven nests were 

 found "within a radius of one hundred 

 feet" of a certain cedar grove, in 1912; 

 'The Depredations of Cats on Muskeget 

 Island,' by G. K. Noble, where the work 

 of bird protectors is evidently being un- 

 done by creatures which know no law; 

 'Wilson's Plover,' by Henry Thurston; 

 and 'Notes on Long Island birds', by Childs, 

 Thurston, Nichols and Murphy. — F. M. C. 



The Condor. — The July number of 

 'The Condor' contains five general arti- 

 cles, two of which are rather comprehen- 

 sive studies. The shorter papers comprise 

 an account by Kennedy of 'A Nest of the 

 Dusky Horned Lark,' containing three 

 young birds, found in the Lower Yakima 

 Valley, Wash., on March 26; Hanford's 

 notes on 'Sierra Storms and Birds,' in 

 191 2, which is supplementary to Inger- 

 soll's paper on this subject in the May 

 number; and Huey's observations on 

 'The Band-Tailed Pigeon in San Diego 

 County' in 1910, 191 1 and 1912, which 

 add several breeding records to those 

 already published. 



Dr. Shufeldt contributes 'An Intro- 

 duction to the Study of the Eggs of the 

 North American Limicolre,' based on the 



