173 
1921 .] Recently published Ornithological Works. 
and making investigations in tlie marine fauna, especially of 
the deeper parts of the Pacific, and the collection of birds 
was quite a secondary consideration. Nevertheless, some 
390 skins, 93 species and subspecies, were collected from 33 
different islands ; and this report, though somewhat belated, 
is of considerable importance, and must be consulted by 
anyone interested in the Pacific avifauna. 
The land-birds, though few in number, have been subjected 
to isolation, and a study of their variation, due doubtless to 
this cause, is of very great interest. 
The first portion of the paper by Mr. Townsend, who 
accompanied the expedition, contains a journal of the islands 
visited, with remarks on their physical characters. The 
groups where collections were made included the Marquesas, 
Paumotu, Society, Tonga, Fiji, Gilbert, Caroline and Ladrone 
archipelagoes. The second half of the paper by Mr. A. 
Wet-more contains an annotated list of the species obtained, 
with a good many interesting remarks on taxonomy and 
classification, and descriptions of a certain number of new 
subspecies. Mr. Wetmore appears to have been somewhat 
hampered in his determinations by the absence of: sufficient 
material for comparison in the Museum at Washington, and 
in some cases his views by no means coincide with those of 
Mr. G. M. Mathews, especially in regard to the name of the 
Red-footed Booby, which he believes must retain Linnaeus’s 
name, Sula piscator. 
It is interesting to learn that on some of the Pacific 
Islands the Frigate-birds are domesticated, and used like 
Carrier Pigeons for carrying messages from one island to 
another. 
Wetmore on lead-poisoning in Ducks. 
[Lead-poisoning in Water-fowl. By Alexander Wetmore. Wash¬ 
ington, D.C., U.S. Dept. Agr. Bull. no. 723, 1919, pp. 1-12; 1 pi.] 
Mr. Wetmore finds that in many parts of America, where 
duck-shooting is carried on on a large scale, the mud-fiats 
become full of shot, which are eaten in considerable quantities 
by the water-fowl, and cause a distinct sickness, the symptoms 
