4S 



THE CONDOR 



Vol. XX 



ing in November, 1917. As recently pointed 

 out by Dr. T. S. Palmer (Condor, xix, Sept. 

 1917, p. 166), Mr. Belding had attained a 

 greater age than any other American ornith- 

 ologist, but it was with ironic swiftness that 

 his death followed this congratulatory com- 

 ment. An account of Mr. Belding's life and 

 his ornithological work will be published in 

 The Condor. 



Mr. John Lewis Childs has recently pub- 

 lished in attractive form a catalog of his 

 library of North American natural history. 

 Ornithology alone comprises no less than 

 thirty-five pages of titles. Among these we 

 note the presence of many complete sets of 

 periodicals now rare, and of many scarce 

 volumes — comprising what certainly must 

 be one of the few large private libraries in 

 the United States. 



PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED 



Report on Field-work in Okanagan and 

 Shuswap Districts, 1916. By J. A. Munro. 

 (Report of the Provincial Museum of Nat- 

 ural History for the year 1916, Victoria, 

 British Columbia, March, 1917, pp. 12-18.) 



During the summer of 1916 field work was 

 carried on by the Provincial Museum in the 

 Okanagan and Shuswap districts of south- 

 ern British Columbia. This report gives 

 brief statements of conditions at the several 

 points visited (Nahun Plateau, Swan Lake, 

 Shuswap District, and Kettle River Dis- 

 trict), with lists of the birds found breeding 

 at each place. Following the summary of 

 the season's work is a briefly annotated list 

 covering "some of the ornithological notes 

 made during the past two years", presuma- 

 bly from the same general region, though in 

 many cases no localities are given for the 

 species mentioned. 



The locality lists include a variety of spe- 

 cies and subspecies that is probably indica- 

 tive of the diversified nature of the regions 

 explored, forms elsewhere representative of 

 different life zones and faunal areas being 

 listed side by side. In some cases there is 

 probable misidentification of closely related 

 subspecies, and, indeed, we gather from the 

 context that certain determinations are 

 merely tentative; but, even making such al- 

 lowances, the collections give evidence of 

 the complex nature of the fauna of the re- 

 gion, one worthy of the most careful scruti- 

 ny by the favorably situated student of geo- 

 graphical distribution. — H. S. Swarth. 



The J Bird Study Book | by | T. Gilbert 

 Pearson j Secretary^ National Association j 

 of Audubon Societies | [Vignette] | Colored 

 frontispiece j Pen and ink drawings by J 

 Will Simmons | and sixteen photographs j 

 Garden City New York | Doubleday, Page & 

 Company j 1917 (our copy received March 

 22); 258 pp., illus. (as above). Price $1.25. 



A list of the headings for the twelve chap- 

 ters which this book contains will serve to 

 convey a fair idea of its contents. These 

 titles are: First acquaintance with the birds; 

 the life about the nest; domestic life of the 

 birds; the migration of birds; birds in win- 

 ter; the economic value of birds; civiliza- 

 tion's effect on the bird supply; the traffic 

 in feathers; bird protective laws and their 

 enforcement .... how laws are made; bird 

 reservations; making bird sanctuaries; 

 teaching bird study. 



Because of Mr. Pearson's long connection 

 with the National Association of Audubon 

 Societies it is only natural that his greatest 

 interest lies in the educational and economic 

 value of birds and in the subject of their 

 protection rather than in the scientific as- 

 pects of ornithology. The Bird Study Book 

 thus reflects the "Audubon attitude" in 

 marked degree. 



There is much that is stimulating in the 

 pages of this book and it is written for the 

 most part in entertaining style. Yet the re- 

 viewer has found it disappointing where it 

 might have been most helpful. It is obvi- 

 ous that the facts set forth have been gath- 

 ered from a variety of sources and are in 

 but small part the results of the author's 

 own study. Yet in many cases no clew 

 whatever is given as to the source of quoted 

 information. While in other instances, as 

 in the list of numbers of birds recorded from 

 the different states, though author and year 

 are given [for example: "Alabama, 275 

 (Oterholser, 1909)"], there is no way by 

 which the reader can locate the citation. 



The book under consideration will be 

 prized by the reader for whom it is intend- 

 ed, by reason of the number and interest of 

 the facts it sets forth but not for its liter- 

 ary qualities. This last comment will be 

 understood by examining the following sam- 

 ple paragraph (p. 166): "The call for feath- 

 er finery rings so loudly in the hearts of 

 women that it will probably never cease to 

 be heard, and it is the Ostrich — the big, un- 

 gainly yet graceful Ostrich — which must 

 supply the demand for high-grade feathers 

 of the future"[!]. — H. W. Grinnell. 



