262 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



BOOK REVIEWS. 



Edited by William Frederic Bade. 



(t gjjy^g Qp Easily foremost among the books that have come 

 California " reviewer's table is Irene Grosvenor Whee- 



lock's Birds of California* Many will remember 

 her admirable book, " Nestlings of Forest and Marsh," brought 

 out by the same publishing-house two years ago. In it the 

 author amply demonstrated her capacity for original observa- 

 tion by making a number of independent contributions to our 

 knowledge of avian feeding habits. The same painstaking work 

 has gone into this new product of her pen. The extent to which 

 she has followed up her earlier observations is indicated by a 

 statement in the preface " that the young of all macroshires, 

 woodpeckers, perching birds, cuckoos, kingfishers, most birds of 

 prey, and many seabirds are fed by regurgitation from the time 

 of hatching through a period varying in extent from three days 

 to four weeks, according to the species." If further observation 

 bears out her conclusion, it will mean a considerable departure 

 from current ornithological doctrine on this subject. But who- 

 ever chooses to indict Mrs. Wiieelock for heresy will have to 

 bring facts and not unsupported statements. 



The scope of the book is indicated in the fact that it contains 

 descriptions of more than three hundred common birds of Cali- 

 fornia and adjacent islands. There are ten full-page plates and 

 seventy-eight excellent drawings in the text by Bruce Horsfall. 

 In the arrangement the author has followed the plan made popu- 

 lar by Neltje Blantchan, of substituting general divisions of 

 habitat and color for a technical key. For purposes of ready 

 identification this plan possesses unsurpassed advantages. The 

 untechnical bird-lover especially will find this arrangement con- 

 venient. The individual biographies with which the author 

 follows up the more salient scientific facts given for each species 

 are models of easy and graceful writing. They betray at once 

 the workmanship of a keen and loving observer who knows how 

 to convey interesting information with economy of words and 

 a peculiarly charming style. Adverting to the popular belief 



* Birds of California: an introduction to more than three hundred com- 

 mon birds of the State and adjacent islands; with a supplementary list of 

 rare migrants, accidental visitants, and hypothetical subspecies. By Irene 

 Grosvenor Wheelock. i2mo. 578 pp. $2.50 net. A. C. McClurg & Co., 

 Chicago. 1904. 



