July, 1910 
PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED 
137 
rily proved to inhabit Cheshire during the 
present and last centuries. The common and 
scientific names of each species are given, and 
also the various local names in use. Many of 
the latter are very curious, and all are of in- 
terest. The status in the county of each 
species is given in brief, in a single sentence 
at the head of each one treated. 
The classification and nomenclature adopted 
is that used in Saunders’ “List of British Birds", 
1907 edition, binomials being used except when 
a British race is distinguishable from Conti- 
nental birds of the same species. “In these 
cases we have thought it advisable to adopt the 
trinomial system of nomenclature, which in 
addition to other advantages shows plainly the 
real affinities of the local races or sub-species. ’’ 
Why, after such a concession.it was not thought 
advisable to use the system uniformly thruout 
the work, it is hard to understand. 
The manner of occurrence together with the 
life histories of the various species are treated 
at length while the food of some of the birds is 
discust in detail. There are numerous excel- 
lent illustrations, mostly general views show- 
ing the habitats of various species of birds. — 
H. S. S. 
A Few Notes on the Habits, Life Histo- 
ry and Economic Value of Doves. The 
Raising of Young Waxwings, Ampeles [sic] 
cedrorum. By William H. Gates. Bulletin 
14, Gulf Biologic Station, Cameron, La.; pp. 1- 
32; 1909. 
In this paper Gates gives many interesting 
details of the life history of doves about Cam- 
eron, La. It is noteworthy that nesting be- 
gins no earlier there than it does much farther 
north, for instance in southern Indiana, that is, 
about April 1. The writer notes a high propor- 
tion of nests destroj'ed, namely 80 out of 111. 
The most important natural enemies are the 
black king snake and the brown rat. 
Incubation consumes from 19 to 21 days. 
The first egg is hatcht from 24 to 36 hours be- 
fore the second, resulting in a markt difference 
in the size of the young which is notisable up 
to the third week. Gates says: “The crop 
capacity of young doves is enormous; up to 
the time they are three or four weeks old it is 
possible for them to hold over one-half of their 
weight of food in the crop. It is likely that in the 
state of nature the young are not fed more than 
three times a day, generally but twice, and 
often not more than once, especially after 
the young get to be a week or so old and do 
not need to be brooded. ” “The average of 78 
weighings taken before and after feeding 
showed an increase of 36 percent of their own 
weight. The maximum amount of food given, 
among those that were observed, was in the 
case of a squab that weighed 53 grams at 5 
o’clock, before feeding, and at 6:15 swung the 
balance at 88 grams, showing that 35 grams of 
food had been taken, or a crop capacity of over 
66 percent of its own weight.” It is not sur- 
prising therefore that the young birds gain 
weight very rapidly. “Birds kept in the house 
gained, respectively, from 31 and 34 grams to 
65 and 67 grams during the third week, and up 
to 95.5 and 96 grams during the next.” 
“Doves raised by the writer have been found 
to eat between 75 percent and 120 percent of 
their own weight of food per day, from the 
time thej- are hatched up to the time they are 
three weeks old. From then on the amount 
lessens rapidly till they become adult, when 
they will eat but 7 percent to 10 percent of 
their own weight.” The actual weight of food 
consumed during the first 3 weeks is from 8 to 
28 grams per day, from the third week on from 
10 to 18 grams. In the wild state doves prob- 
ably consume from 15 to 20 percent of their 
own weight of food. On the basis of 15 per- 
cent “it would take 33 grams a day to maintain 
a pair of doves, which allowing an average of 
30 grams a day for food fed to the young dur- 
ing six weeks of the summer, amounts to over 
30 pounds a year; at which rate it would take 
but 66 pairs to consume a ton of feed a year.” 
Gates finds that only a small proportion of 
the food is grain and that wholly waste. Most 
of the subsistence is obtained from the seeds of 
weeds. He mentions the shooting of doves on 
account of the alleged scattering by them of 
the seeds of indigo weed, a pest in rice. The 
doves eat the seeds for the nourishment con- 
tained in them and it certainly is an unusual 
happening for one to pass thru the strong 
gizzard entire. This unjust persecution of the 
doves should stop. 
The writer presents the first evidence we 
have seen that doves ever voluntarily take liv- 
ing insects; he says birds in captivity were 
seen eating ants. Notes are given also on the 
nesting and food habits, and the rearing of the 
young of the nonpareil, bluebird and cedar- 
bird.— W. L. M. 
An Ornithological Reconnaissance of 
Northeastern Venezuela by C. William 
Beebe (=Zoologica, vol. 1, no. 3, Dec., 1909, 
pp. 67-114, figs. 21-37). The main body of the 
paper is taken up with the list of birds ob- 
served. with more or less extensive annota- 
tions pertaining to the life histories, habits, 
color variations, etc. Parts one, two, and three 
are devoted to the itinerary and accounts of the 
character of the country explored, while part 
five is a general summing up of ecological con- 
ditions, together with a comparison of con- 
ditions in Venezuela and New York State. 
Descriptions of nesting habits of many of the 
species are of interest, especially so from the 
standpoint of such considerations as those pre- 
sented in the paper by Peck on the same sub- 
