May, 1906 | 
EDITORIALS 
77 
even so little beyond our narrow field, yet we 
cannot help remarking upon the pleasure to 
be derived from the study of mammals both in 
the field and museum. No specialist in any 
one group of animals can totally ignore every 
other group. The most eminent ornithologist 
will be the one who has a general knowledge 
of natural history to serve as a background for 
the study of his chosen specialty. A fair knowl- 
edge of insects, worms, molluscs, batracliians, 
reptiles and mammals will increase the ac- 
curacy of his study of the food-relations of 
birds, their distribution, and checks controll- 
ing their abundance. Mammals in particular 
need to be studied more in their bearing upon 
our avifaunas. Many birds-of-prey feed upon 
mammals, and many mammals feed upon birds. 
The chipmunk, as a nest-destroyer, has been 
accused of decimating the bird population of 
some parts of the country where a certain 
species abounds. In fact mammalogy and or- 
nithology can be very comfortably studied to- 
gether, with little interference, and with much 
added satisfaction. Heretofore students of 
mammals have had no text-book to refer to in 
identifying west coast species. This want is 
now to be met by our own fellow club-member, 
Mr. Frank Stephens, who is even better known 
as a mammalogist than as an ornithologist. As 
announced elsewhere in this issue, Mr. Steph- 
ens is the author of a forthcoming work on 
California mammals which will place this 
study on a basis for comparatively easy pur- 
suit. Let us hear more in regard to the rela- 
tions of the various members of the squirrel 
family to bird population. 
We wish to call the attention of every bird 
student to the communication in this issue 
from Mr. P. B. Peabody. When a prospective 
author resorts to a published appeal for infor- 
mation concerning the subject he is elaborat- 
ing, everyone becomes in a way responsible. 
It too often happens that a book, of a compre- 
hensive nature such as Mr. Peabody is so earn- 
estly striving to compile, might have been a 
little more up-to-date if only someoue who had 
the needed information up his sleeve had “loos- 
ened up.” More than likely the individual in 
question remarks after the book appears in 
print, “Ugh! I could have told him better 
than that.” Of course an author is responsible 
himself for the searching out of, and 
proper selection from, all published writ- 
ings. In order to make his knowledge avail- 
able to all other workers (in other words, 
therefore, to shift the responsibility), it is in- 
cumbent upon every serious bird student to 
put whatever observations of value he has 
made, upon permanent record. And to afford a 
medium for recording these things is the raison 
d'etre of such a magazine as The Condor. 
BOOK NOTICES 
Wild Wings. Adventures of a Camera 
Hunter Among the Larger Wild Birds of 
North America on Sea and Land. By HER- 
BERT Knightly Job. With an Introductory 
Letter by Theodore Roosevelt. Houghton 
Mifflin & Co., 8 vo., xxviii-f344 pages, 160 il- 
lustrations after photographs by the author. 
Price, $3 net. 
This is one of the most interesting por- 
trayals of wild life that we have had the good 
fortune to read. Mr. Job is an enthusiastic 
naturalist and a skilled photographer as well, 
and with this equipment he has brought a gen- 
erous slice of ‘out-doors’ between the two cov- 
ers of his book. The illustrations are all good, 
and many are remarkable, having required a 
vast deal of patience and perseverence. Ob- 
viously it is impossible to give an adequate 
idea of a book of this character in a short 
notice, but the territory covered extends from 
Bird Rock in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to the 
Florida Keys, and some notion of the variety 
in subject matter may be gained from the 
chapter headings. Part I. Adventures in 
Florida Wilds, including: Cities of Brown 
Pelicans; Following Audubon among the 
Florida Keys; In the Cape Sable Wilderness; 
The Great Cuthbert Rookery; On Lone Bird 
Key. Part II. Other Wanderings South; 
Scavengers of the South; Virginia Bird-Homes 
of Beach and Marsh.; The Egret, in Nature and 
in Fashion. Part III. The Sea! The Sea! — To 
Bird Rock in an Open Boat; Amid Northern 
Spruces and Sea-Girt Rocks; Off Chatham Bars. 
Part IV. The Elusive .Shore-Birds — The Shore 
Patrol; Northward with the Shore-Bird Host; 
Shore-Bird Loiterers. Part V. Raptores and 
Forest Fastnesses — The New .Sport of “Hawk- 
ing”; Owl Secrets; Adventures with Great 
Horned Owls. — W. K. F. 
Two Bird-Lovers in Mexico. By C. 
William Beebe. Illustrated with photo- 
graphs from life taken by the author. Boston 
and New York. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 12 
mo., xiii + 408 pages, 106 half-tones. Price, 
$3 net. 
This attractive volume contains an account 
of a winter journey to Mexico, where three 
months were spent by Mr. and Mrs. Beebe, on 
what was virtually a camping trip. “We 
reached Vera Cruz on New Year’s from which 
city we made three camping trips in the vicin- 
ity of the volcano of Colima, in the States of 
Jalisco and Colima; and returning via Vera 
Cruz, we left that port enroute for New York 
at Easter. 
“The entire trip was so novel, so delightful, 
so absolutely devoid of unpleasant features, and 
on the whole so inexpensive, that it seemed to 
me that the knowledge of such an outing would 
tempt many lovers of Nature to this neighboring 
Republic. As an aid to such, Mrs. Beebe has 
added a chapter on ‘How we did it.’ ” 
The book is well calculated to tempt one to 
follow their example. It is written in a fam- 
iliar, interesting style and contains many notes 
not only on birds but also on all the animals 
