July, 1921 
139 
EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS 
The regular July meeting of the Northeriu 
Division of the Cooper Club will be post- 
poned until Wednesday evening, August 3, 
1921. This is done in order to relate the 
meeting to the sessions of the Pacific Divi- 
sion of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, which will be held 
at Berkeley, August 4 to 6, 1921. The busi- 
ness meeting of the C. O. C. will be held at 
7:30 Pp. M., and the program will commence 
at 8 p. M. The two papers thus far assured 
are: “The Pelican Colonies of Pyramid 
Lake” by Barton Warren Evermann; “The 
Principle of Rapid Peering, in Birds’ by 
Joseph Grinnell. Visiting ornithologists 
will be able to join in the various excursions 
which are being planned in connection with 
the general meetings. 
Mr. and Mrs. J. Eugene Law are doing 
vertebrate field work again this summer in 
the Chiricahua Mountains, southeastern 
Arizona. Mr. Donald D. McLean is serving 
as Mr. Law’s assistant, and the party keeps 
in touch with the outside world through the 
kind offices of our fellow Cooper Club mem- 
ber at Dos Cabezos, Mr. Frank H. Hands. 
We are not infrequently called upon to 
recommend a few of “the best” books on 
birds for a beginning student to own, said 
student being of the type who is ambitious 
to qualify in due time as a serious ornithol- 
ogist. Of course the number must be sirict- 
ly limited and the factor of scholarly stand- 
ards be kept foremost in consideration. 
Here are the four works we have, on occa- 
sion, nominated: Coues’ ‘Key to North Am- 
erican Birds’; Newton’s “Dictionary ot 
Birds”; Pycraft’s “History of Birds’; Ben- 
dire’s “Life Histories of North American 
Birds” (with Bent’s continuation of the 
same so far as it has appeared). Perhaps 
somone else will have different ideas on 
this score. We invite comment. 
Various interesting bits of news have 
come to the ears of the Editors lately and 
some of them we hereby pass along. Mr. 
Harry Harris, of Kansas City, is reported 
to be at work upen a biographical index 
to the Ibis. There is also a persistent rum- 
or current to the effect that Missouri is to 
lose Mr. Harris,—California to be the gain- 
er. Part II of Mr. A. C. Bent’s “Life His- 
tories” is in press, and the manuscript of 
Part III is completed. The Treganzas (Mr. 
and Mrs. A. O.) are actively promoting pop- 
ular interest in birds among the boy scouts, 
clubs, and schools of Salt Lake City. Prof. 
Arthur A. Allen, of Ithaca, has had remark- 
able success the past spring in rearing 
broods of Ruffed Grouse. Mr. S. Prentiss 
Baldwin has recorded further startling reve- 
lations this summer concerning the domes- 
tic relations of the house wrens on his place 
near Cleveland. Mr. R. H. Beck is giving a 
good account of himself among the South 
Sea islands, whence he has already shipped 
in to the American Museum of Natural His- 
tory several consignments of rare bird skins. 
PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED 
SAUNDERS ON THE BirRpsS oF MoNTANA.*— 
This report, the first complete notice of the 
birds of Montana, consists mainly of an an- 
notated list of all species of recent birds 
known to have occurred within the State. 
The main list numbers 332 species and sub- 
species, including all currently recognized 
indigenous forms known to occur. Species 
noticed under secondary headings are as 
follows: Recently Extinct Species, one (Pas- 
senger Pigeon); Introduced Species, four; 
and Hypothetical List, thirteen, species 
which have been recorded but the status of 
which is questioned, owing to possible err- 
ors in identification. There is also pre- — 
sented a supplemental list of nine subspecies 
which have been described but are not gen- 
erally considered as valid. 
We consider this report to be one of the 
best lists ever prepared for a western State. 
The allocation of old records, by no means 
an easy matter, seems to have been excep- 
tionally well done, and the very large 
amount of field work accomplished by the 
author places to his credit a much greater 
proportion of the notes than is usual in 
such undertakings. Its appearance places 
the ornithology of Montana on a basis far 
in advance of similar work in any other of 
the larger and more sparsely settled States, 
with the exception of Arizona, and many 
years are likely to elapse before a more com- 
plete exposition of the bird life of the State 
appears. 
The introductory part comprises about 
twenty-five pages. The introduction proper, 
*A Distributional List of the Birds of Mon- 
tana, with Notes on the Migration and Nest- 
ing of the Better Known Species. By Aretas 
A. Saunders. Pacific Coast Avifauna, No. 14. 
194 pages; 1 map and numerous figures. Pub- 
lished by the Cooper Ornithological Club, 
Berkeley, California, Feb. 1, 1921. 
