THE OOLOGIST 



13 



to get the correct line and then rise 

 directly under the second drake, half 

 lifting him from the water. Then he 

 would fly a few yards, drop into the 

 water and repeat the performance. 



The eggs, usually eight or ten in 

 number, are a pale ivory shade and 

 are laid early in May. The duck sets 

 very close and sometimes repeated 

 hammering on the tree will not make 

 her leave. The two nests described 

 below are typical. 



Farneys Lake Okanagan, 



May 22, 1915. 



This nest was discovered by seeing 

 the female fly directly to the hole 

 after she had finished feeding. Ten 

 partly incubated eggs-down pale gray. 

 Nest in old Flickers hole, near top of 

 thirty foot dead douglas fir, in twelve 

 inches of water, on shore of lake. The 

 hole had become enlarged by decay 

 and a slight touch was sufficient to 

 break off the adhering bark and ex- 

 pose the eggs. Small fragments of 

 egg shell in the rotten wood at the 

 bottom of the hole indicated that the 

 same site had been used before. 

 Farneys Lake, Okanagan, 



May 15, 1914. 



Nine fresh eggs, in an old Flickers 

 hole near the top of a twenty foot 

 pine stub, in two feet of water on the 

 lake shore. This tree looked like a 

 suitable place for a Buffle-head to 

 nest but repeated hammering did not 

 make the female show herself. I was 

 about to give up, when a drake Buffle 

 Head alighted in the water close to 

 the tree. Several more vigorous blows 

 on the tree induced the female to leave 

 the nest and join the male on the 

 water. 



J. A. Munro, • 

 Okanagan Landing, 

 British Columbia. 



BOOKS RECEIVED 



THE BIRDS OF THE ANAMBA 

 ISLANDS. Smithsonian Institute, 

 United States National Museum, Bul- 

 letin 98, by Harry C. Oberholser. 1917. 



This paper by Dr. Oberholser, who 

 is perhaps our foremost authority on 

 the science of birds at this time, is a 

 review of the skins of 212 birds, 44 

 representing species and sub-species 

 gathered by Dr. W. L. Abbot on a visit 

 to these little known islands in 1899, 

 when he was accompanied by C. Boden 

 Kloss, who later published an account 

 of the cruise with a nominal list of 

 birds. These islands are situated in 

 the southern portion of the South 

 China Sea and the paper contains an 

 introduction, a Bibliography, a short 

 description of the physiography of the 

 islands. A check list of birds of these 

 islands, and a separate list for each 

 island, together with description of the 

 faunal relation of the islands, and a 

 annotated list of birds. It is illustrat- 

 ed by a number of half-tones and in a 

 thoroughly scientific description of the 

 subject matter. 



TROPICAL WILD LIFE IN BRIT- 

 ISH GUIANA. Zoological contribu- 

 tions from the Tropical Research Sta- 

 tion of the New York Zoological So- 

 ciety, by William Beebe, G. Inness 

 Hartley and Paul G. Howes, with an 

 introduction by Colonel Theodore 

 Roosevelt. 



This volume is of more than passing 

 interest to the readers of The Oologist 

 in view of the contributions to our 

 column by one of the authors, Paul G. 

 Howes, of his experiences during the 

 trip which the material on which this 

 volume is predicated was collected. 

 Mr. Howes has for a long time, dur- 

 ing many years demonstrated his in- 

 terest in The Oologist and in so doing 

 has given pleasure and entertainment 

 to thousands of our readers. This vol- 



