Mar., 1915 
PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED 
105 
requested to send their names and addresses 
to the Biological Survey, Washington, D. C. 
Pull directions for making the census and 
blank forms for the report will be for- 
warded in time to permit well considered 
plans to be formulated before the time for 
actual field work. As the Bureau has no 
funds available for the purpose, it must 
depend on the services of voluntary observ- 
ers. 
Very truly yours, 
E. W. Nelson, 
Assistant Chief, Biological Survey. 
Washington, D. C.. February 16, 1915. 
PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED 
Handbook of birds | of the | western 
United States | including the Great Plains, 
Great Basin, Pacific Slope, and | Lower Rio 
Grande Valley I by | Florence Merriam 
Bailey | with thirty-three full-page plates 
by | Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and over six | 
hundred cuts in the text | Fourth edition, 
revised | [design] | Boston and New York | 
Houghton, Mifflin Company | The Riverside 
Press Cambridge | 1914. Pp. li+570, pis. 
I-XXXVI, 2 diagrams and 601 figs, in text. 
(Our copy received December 12, 1914.) 
The appearance of the fourth edition, re- 
vised, of Mrs. Bailey’s Handbook is a suf- 
ficient attest to its popularity and useful- 
ness. To the average student of birds in 
the western United States this is the only 
satisfactory handbook available, and teach- 
ers in schools and colleges give it wide use 
in the classroom and laboratory. 
Revision in the present edition consists in 
the elimination of all the local lists (pages 
xliii--lxxxii of the original edition, 40 in all ) 
of the original text, the succeeding parts of 
the introduction being brought forward and 
repaged to fill the gap, and in the addition 
of fifty-nine pages ( 485—544 ) of new mate- 
rial. This new matter covers the following 
subjects: “Changes in nomenclature made 
by the nomenclature committee of the Am- 
erican Ornithologists’ Union, 1902-1913’’ (2 
pages), “Species to be added” (3% pages, 
with a brief description of each added 
form), “Species to be eliminated” (% page), 
“Birds of the western United States in the 
nomenclature of the 1910 check-list” (45% 
pages, giving the A. O. U. number, the sci- 
entific and vernacular names and the range 
condensed by the extensive use of abbrevi- 
ations), and “Books of reference” (6 2/3 
pages, supplemental to the original list 
printed on pp. xliv-xlix of the amended in- 
troduction). Thus from the standpoint of 
nomenclature and distribution the revised 
edition reflects much more of our present 
knowledge, while the technical descriptions 
and the miscellaneous notes by Mr. and Mrs. 
Bailey and others remain unchanged. 
In view of the extensive popular use of 
the book it is to be regretted that the pub- 
lishers could not concede to Mrs. Bailey a 
complete revision of the book, such as she 
desired. Certain shortcomings, which could 
not be foreseen when the work was first 
published, make parts of the original text 
difficult for the average student to use. 
However, a thorough revision is to be ex- 
pected within the next few years, and until 
then the present edition, as with previous 
ones, will very effectively fill the need for 
authoritative information concerning bird 
life in western North America. — Tracy 1. 
Storer. 
Alaskan Bird-Life | as | Depicted by 
Many Writers | Edited by J Ernest Inger- 
soll j — | Seven Plates in dolors and Other 
Illustrations. | — | Published by the | Na- 
tional Association of Audubon Societies | 
New York, 1914 [our copy received Novem- 
ber 27, 1914] ; 72 pp., 7 col. pis., 5 hfft., 1 
map. (To be purchased for $1.00 at the 
Office of the Audubon Societies, New York 
City.) 
A splendid idea has here been put into 
execution — that of making available 
throughout the schools of a given district a 
popular account of its birds. No less than 
8000 copies of this little book are to be dis- 
tributed to the school children of Alaska. 
This benefaction, as we are told in Febru- 
ary, 1915, number of Bird-Lore, is made pos- 
sible through private gift for the purpose. 
The text consists chiefly of quotations 
and direct contributions from several lead- 
ing students of Alaskan bird-life, and inso- 
far as these contributed accounts are ren- 
dered verbatim, no criticism can be offered. 
By far the more important of these con- 
tributions come from the pen of our fore- 
most Alaskan authority, E. W. Nelson. His 
new writings here published are no less 
virile than those of his Alaskan “Report” 
of thirty years ago. The colored plates, 
chiefly by Brooks, are further features of 
great merit. Let it be understood that, even 
with the unfavorable comments to follow, 
the object and, in the main, the execution 
of this booklet deserve the warmest com- 
mendation. It is all the more a pity that a 
high standard could not have been secured 
on all of its pages. 
Although we are told in the Introduction 
that “the greatest care has been taken as to 
accuracy”, no less than thirty more or less 
serious mistakes offend the eye of the 
reader on the first twenty-five pages. It is 
only fair to the various contributors to state 
that these twenty-five pages of matter are 
chiefly the compilation of the editor of 
“Alaskan Bird-Life”, who thus shows scien- 
tific unfitness for the service rendered. 
As illustrative of the kinds of errors in 
evidence, we may point out the following 
(italics ours): “Among those [of the auk 
family] breeding in crowded colonies south 
of the Aleutian islands are the . . . crested 
auklets, marbled, ancient, and Kittlitz’s 
murrelets, . . . and the black guillemots” — 
