3 8o 



Bird- Lore 



graphy covering foreign as well as 

 domestic publications. Its preparation 

 can be no slight task for the industrious 

 editor. 



The opening article, carefully pre- 

 pared by Messrs. A. H. Wright and 

 Francis Harper, bears the title 'A Bio- 

 logical Reconnaissance of Okefinoke 

 Swamp: The Birds.' It is well illustrated 

 with characteristic views of the region 

 and accompanied by a folding map. 

 'Notes on Offshore Birds,' by Mr. J. T. 

 Nichols, follows, and hidden under this 

 caption the problem of the sailing bird 

 is discussed. We find also several sight 

 records of the rare Black-capped Petrel 

 (Mstrelata hasitata). Mr. H. W. Wright 

 has a long second paper on 'Morning 

 Awakening and Even-Song.' The birds 

 would be astonished if they knew the hours 

 they kept, and they seem to be almost 

 as regular in their songs as are the Cuckoos 

 of the clocks. Mr. Henry Oldys has com- 

 mitted to musical notation 'A Remarkable 

 Hermit Thrush Song.' This is really the 

 higher mathematics of bird song where 

 most of us cannot follow, but we may 

 well take the exception to the statement 

 that "the bird expresses itself in human 

 music." Rather, the bird expresses itself 

 in its own music, which human musicians 

 attempt to appropriate. 



'Some Seasonal Notes on Long Island 

 Birds,' by Messrs. Henry Thurston and 

 H. S. Boyle, are of considerable local 

 interest, as are 'Notes on the Occurrence 

 and Nesting of Certain Birds in Rhode 

 Island,' by Mr. H. S. Hathaway, and 

 'Birds New or Rare to the Fauna of Maine,' 

 by Mr. Arthur H. Norton. There is also 

 'An Annotated List of the Birds of San- 

 born Co., Southeast-central South Dakota' 

 by Mr. S. S. Visher. 'Cory's Least Bittern 

 at Ithaca, N. Y.' is an account, by Mr. 

 Arthur A. Allen, of a specimen captured 

 alive. The photographs of this extremely 

 rare bird are unique. At page 578, Mr. 

 J. C. Phillips records 'A Crested Canada 

 Goose,' of which there is a drawing in the 

 text, and an item on 'Hummingbirds' 



Eyelashes,' by Mr. H. K. Coale, seems 

 worthy of mention. — J. D., Jr. 



The Oriole. — 'The Oriole' is pub- 

 lished by the Somerset Hills Bird Club, 

 at Bernardsville, New Jersey, under the 

 editorship of John Dryden Kuser. Num- 

 ber 1 of Volume I (August, 1913), in 

 addition to several articles by members of 

 the club, including two by the editor, on 

 the Passenger Pigeon and Solitary Sand- 

 piper, contains 'Hints on Bird Study,' 

 by W. DeW. Miller, 'Feathered Martyro,' 

 by C. William Beebe, and 'Two Rare 

 Snipe [Purple Sandpiper and Bartramian 

 Sandpiper] near New York City,' by 

 Wm. H. Weigmann. 



Colored plates of the Passenger Pigeon, 

 Chickadee, Cardinal, and Mallard, from 

 the Leaflets of the National Association 

 of Audubon Societies, add to the attrac- 

 tiveness of this publication, to which, and 

 the Club it represents, we wish the fullest 

 measure of success. — F. M. C. 



Book News 



Witherby & Co., 320 High Holborn, 

 London, W. C, announce the publication 

 by subscription (price 25s.) of a mono- 

 graph of the Gannet by J. H. Gurney. 

 Mr. Gurney has devoted years of research 

 to the preparation of this work which will 

 contain over 600 pages, a greater number 

 we believe than have ever before been 

 devoted to the biography of a single 

 species. 



W. L. McAtee (in 'Bird Enemies of 

 the Codling Moth,' Yearbook of Dept. of 

 Agr., 191 1, pp. 237-246) states that ento- 

 mologists "are almost unanimous in 

 declaring birds to be the most efficient 

 natural enemies of the pest." His paper 

 presents the data on which this belief is 

 based. For example, J. E. Buck, is quoted 

 as writing that in Virginia, counts of over 

 400 cocoons observed on apple trees 

 revealed the fact that. . . . birds had 

 destroyed fully 85 per cent of the worms." 



