THE CONDOR 
Vol. XII 
to the utmost, and the resultant report discloses 
the domestic life of the king of birds to its 
uttermost details. The nest under observation 
was built on a cliff in a deer forest in Scotland, 
and a blind was constructed near by, affording 
concealment to observer and camera, where 
many long hours must have been spent in 
watching the daily progress of the young bird. 
The account is written in most simple and con- 
vincing style, with none of the imaginative 
flights that so often mar such observations, 
and is a substantial and valuable addition to 
our knowledge of the life history of a most 
interesting bird. 
The accompanying photographs are beautiful 
and interesting, almost telling the story by 
themselves. Considering the large amount of 
dark, rainy weather encountered during the 
period of observation, the photographic results 
seem really remarkable. — H. S. S. 
Annotated List of the Water Birds of 
Weld, Morgan and Adams Counties, Col- 
orado, SOUTH TO THE FIRST SECTIONAL LINE 
below the Fortieth Parallel. By A. H. 
b'ELGER. With three maps. (From The Auk 
xvi, no. 3, July, 1909, pp. 272-291). 
The list is a long one, especially so for a sec- 
tion of the country that we are not ac- 
customed to think of as being particularly well 
situated for the abundant occurrence of water 
fowl. The recent abundance of these birds is 
attributed largely to the settlement and farm- 
ing of the country, with the attendant con- 
struction of reservoirs and irrigating systems. 
Besides the author’s personal observations on 
the birds of the region during eleven years — 
1898 to 1909 — he has drawn upon all the pub- 
lisht sources of information available, making 
the list authoritative and apparently quite 
complete. 
Many species of waders known to breed only 
in the far north were observed in varying num- 
bers thru the summer, giving rise to the suspicion 
that they might be found nesting in the region. 
While this may prove to be true in some in- 
stances we believe it to be unsafe to assume as 
much from the mere occurrence of the birds 
during the summer months. Individuals of 
even such northern species as the Western 
Sandpiper and the Northern Phalarope are 
known to spend the summer as far south as 
southern California, and such of these as have 
been collected have always proved to be non- 
breeding birds. — H. S. S. 
Ecology of the Hoatzin. By C. William 
Beebe [=Zoologica, vol. 1, no. 2, Dec., 1909, 
pp. 45-66, Figs. 7-19]. This contribution to 
the life history of an exceedingly curious and 
little known bird contains much of great inter- 
est. A bird with its crop replaced by a 
“gizzard,” that uses its wings as hands and has 
claws on its “fingers,” that has the large, 
heavy feet of a ground dweller and still lives 
in the tree tops, but can swim and dive if need 
be, is enough of an anomaly to somewhat pre- 
pare us for the author’s conclusion, startling as 
it appears, that the Hoatzin is very imperfectly 
adapted to its surroundings. This appears to 
be true to such a degree that it is only the total 
absence of active enemies that enables the bird 
to survive. 
The numerous excellent photographs add 
greatly to the interest of the paper' Some of 
these depict the Hoatzin in life. Others from 
prepared specimens, show peculiarities of struc- 
ure, such as the curiously modified sternum, 
clearly illustrating the feeble flying powers of 
the bird, and the claw-armed wings of the 
immature bird, used in clambering thru the 
branches. 
A map illustrates the distribution of the 
species as known at present, and a bibliogra- 
phy of pertinent literature is appended to the 
paper. — II. S. S. 
Racket Formation in Tail-feathers of 
Motmots. By C. William Beebe [ Zoolog- 
ica, vol. I, no. 5, January, 1910, pp. 141-149, 
figs. 43-47]. The strange habit of voluntarily 
mutilating their tail feathers, peculiar to the 
Motmots, has long been a subject of interest to 
ornithologists, the mathematical regularity 
with which the trimming is done, anti the 
object’ of the peculiar ornamention, being alike 
food for speculation. In the present paper Mr. 
Beebe tells of certain experiments carried out 
on a living bird, which seem to cast much light 
on some phases of the question. As remarkt 
by the author, the fact that before the denuda- 
tion the feathers at the point of trimming are 
narrower than elsewhere, has been cited as a 
possible example of the inheritance of ac- 
quired characters, the theory being that 
generations of trimming have produced nar- 
rower feathers, which would, presumably, 
in further generations, be gradually replaced 
by others entirely bare at that point. On 
the face of it this theory appears to ex- 
plain the existing conditions very plausibly, 
but Mr. Beebe’s experiments seem to show 
that the acceptance of such a belief is but 
placing the cart before the horse — a complete 
reversal of cause and effect. 
Lack of space forbids our giving an outline 
of the experiments carried out, but the conclu- 
sions reaclit are briefly as follows: that a cer- 
tain portion of the central rectrices shows a 
congenital degeneration of barbs and barbules; 
that these barbs are strong enough to adhere to 
the shaft during the growth of the feather, but 
too weak to survive the manipulation received 
during preening. Hence that the regularity 
with which the trimming is done is entirely in- 
voluntary on the part of the bird, and not at 
