3S 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XIII 
I'raiicisco fire of .\pril, 19()(>, were all destroyed. 
Itut some of the field notes of this period are 
inclnded in the present paper along- with those 
residting from the work in snhsecpient \ ears. 
The present paper is based primarily on Beck’s 
field observations: but critical notes on the 
large series of specimens secured since the fire 
are often added, and for these Loomis and 
Gifford, of the Academy's cxiratorial staff, are 
evidentl}- largel}- responsible. 
The paper under consideration is couched in 
excellent form, literarily and typographically, 
practically ideal in the latter respect, a rather 
rare thing in this day of hurriedly proof-read 
Iiuhlications. The great value in the paper 
lies in the large addition to our knowledge of 
the sea.sonal occurrence of the species dealt 
with, esi)ecially the Jaegers, Gulls, Terns and 
Shearwaters. < )ne species is newly recorded 
not only for California hut for the American 
side of the Pacific, namely the h'lesh-footed 
vShearwater (/^iifftnus i arneif>es) , of which Heck 
has taken no less than ten specimens, from 190,1 
to 1907. Of Puffifius bullet in of which only one 
example was previously known from Califor- 
nian waters, ten more specimens have been 
secured, all in the fall. Of the Skua [Mcjiales- 
tr is skua) a second specimen for California is 
recorded. .\ number of species previously 
thought to he of hut casual occurrence along 
the Californian coast, ha\-e been found h}- Beck 
to occur regularl}- in large numbers. Only 
concentrated and long-continued work, such as 
this has been, can he expected to yield a 
knowledge of the true status of any pelagic 
avifauna. 
The reader of the paper in hand is at once 
impressed with the uniform occurrence of cer- 
tain usages at variance with ruling custom 
among -Vmerican ornithologists. Trinomials 
are tabooed; hut instead of treating all forms 
(both small-species and remotely di\’ergent speci- 
es) as binomials, all of the small-species or sub- 
species (evidentl}' forms which are found to inter- 
grade in any way)are lumped under a binomial, 
the earliest nomenclaturally appropriate name 
being employed. Thus our California Murre is 
just Murre, Uria troille\ the Pacific Kittiwake is 
just Kittiwake, Rissa tridactyla\ etc. This does 
not appear to he an advantageous move in the 
interests of a better knowledge either of the 
ranges or of the migration -routes of birds. The 
recognition of even the smallest geographic 
variants is essential. This was emphasized by 
Stejneger many j-ears ago (Birds of Kauiis- 
chatka, 188.3, p. .148), and the i)rinciple holds 
with increasing force. 
Theireader must recognize the peculiar usage 
above referred to, in weighing such records as 
that of " E> eunetes pusillus" for California, 
which is given as including li. uiauri. The 
implication is that intergrades have been 
found between E. pusillus and E. mauri\ hut 
no data is presented in this regard. In the 
same way, Euluiat us rodi^ersi is lumped under 
/•'. fflacialts. 
Doubt is cast upon the validityof Brachyram- 
phus craverii as distinct from B. hypoleucus. 
Larus bracliyrhynchus is combined with I.arus 
cauus\ that is, the separate existence of a 
species brachyrhynchus is denied. This is at 
variance with the idea of Bishop (Condor XII, 
1910, 174) that previous records of Larus canus 
for California should probably he referred to 
Larus delarvarensis. 
It would of course have been of enormous in- 
terest and \-alue if the data sulistantiatory of 
the above conclusions had been presented. 
However, the reader of the paper under review 
is left with the feeling that this is hut a pre- 
liminary report, and that extended critical 
treatment may he expected to follow in due 
course. Certainly no ornithologists in the 
country are in a more fortunate position for 
the handling of problems of this sort than the 
persons connected with the California Acade- 
my of Sciences, whose Museum contains at the 
present time with little doubt the finest collec- 
tion of water birds in America. — ^^L Grinneli-. 
METHOD.S OF Attr..\cting Birds. By Gil- 
kf:rt M. Tr.\fton: with thirty-nine illustra- 
tions (twentj'-four of them from photographs) 
and a chart of fruits eaten by birds. Houghton 
Mifflin Company, Boston, .September 1910, pp. 
XV + 164; ])rice Si. 2.3 net. 
This book, published under the auspices of 
the National Association of Audubon Societies, 
“has been written from two view-points, that 
of birds and that of human beings: for the 
protection of the former anil the pleasure of 
the latter.” 
It is written by the Supervisor of Nature- 
Study, Passaic, N. J., and gives beside his own 
experience, the residts of many ob.servers, thus 
summarizing very completely the work being 
done throughout the countr}-. An appendix 
gives a list of ninety-one to whose contribu- 
tions the author has had access, or who have 
furnished information through personal cor- 
respondence. 
The practical value of the book in nature- 
study in the schools should be great; for the 
methods given have thus had the test of expe- 
rience. A statement of the results obtained 
makes them the more valuable. 
The chapters deal with the need and value of 
attracting birds; nesting houses; attracting the 
winter birds; drinking and bathing fountains: 
planting trees, shrubs, and vines; bird-protec- 
tion in schools, and bird photography. 
.Special drawings bring out details of plans 
and constructions presented. 
The methods given would seem to be well 
calculated to attain the results desired in the 
Audubon movement, by inculcating a love for 
