RECENT BIRD BOOKS 
51 
RECENT BIRD BOOKS 
A BEHAVIOR STUDY OF THE COMMON TERN, by Ralph S. 
Palmer {Boston Society of Natural History, Boston, 1911; wrappers, 
pp. 1-119, with 14 plates of line drawings; price, $1), 
This monographic paper on the Common Tern is based on studies 
conducted at Sugarloaf Islands, off the coast of Maine. Completeness 
for the treatise is nest claimed, as it does not cover taxonomy, parasites 
or molts, and only briefly outlines migration and breeding ranges. The 
work has been undertaken from the angle of behavior, with observa- 
tions made during the summer months. 
The author first visited the islands in 19:15, when the tern population 
was nearing its maximum densit . In 1938 and 1939 it was estimated 
that the islands had 800 pairs of nesting terns, of which about 80 pairs 
were Roseate Terns and the remainder Common Terns. The Sugarloaf 
Islands are hardly worthy of the name of island as they are in reality 
fairly small rocks which rise out of the ocean. Access is rather difficult 
even in a calm sea, which probably explains the success of the tern 
colony. 
The book is divided into two parts; ‘Environment in the Breeding 
Season' and Behavior During the Breeding Cycle*. In the environ- 
mental studies the requirements for a tern colony are discussed, with 
the relation of locality, food, vegetation, weather, water, predators and 
other factors considered in turn. Because of various decimating in- 
fluences, the author figures that not over 35 percent of the young terns 
hatched survive until winter. Common Terns do not reach breeding 
age until they are three years old. Only 5 percent of the young reach 
maturity. The behavior studies during the breeding season are very 
complete and cover courtship, territorial rights, nests, eggs, incubation, 
young and their development, fishing, bathing and final departure from 
their summer home. Young terns fiy at an average age of 30 days. 
Terns leave the ternery in small flocks and pass the winter from tropical 
countries to as far south as the antarctic regions. The book is an ex- 
cellent study of a well-distributed species. There is a good bibliography 
and several charts. — F. J. P. 
***** 
A FIELD GUIDE TO WESTERN BIRDS, by Roger Tory Peterson 
(Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1941; cloth, l-xx-|- 1-240, with six colored 
and 40 halftone plates, 42 line drawings; price, 82.75), 
Our members who have taken western trips in the past and have 
been puzzled to know what bird book to take along for easy reference, 
will be glad to learn that a new guide to western birds by Mr, Peterson 
is available. In a few years his ‘Field Guide’ to eastern birds has be- 
come indispensable. He now does for western birds what he did for 
the eastern birds. 
The plan of the new book is essentially the same as that followed In 
the eastern guide. There are diagrammatic drawings which show the 
birds as they would appear in the field when seen at a distance, with 
various species in each family grouped for comparison, and with all 
distinctive field marks pointed out. Where color is the predominating 
feature the respective birds are depicted on colored plates; the others 
are in black and white. The eastern guide covered the birds of eastern 
United States to the western edge of the Great Plains, The new 
western guide covers the remaining United States, beginning where 
the other left off. It includes the Rocky Mountain States, the Pacific 
States, the Pacific Northwest and the Southwest. Some overlapping is 
inevitable, but the author has been very careful to give full coverage 
to all species occurring in both sections of the United States. Con- 
sidering the large number of species which had to be crowded into a 
nocket-size volume, the written text supplementing the plates is clear 
though concise and is all that anyone might ask for. The arrangement 
