16 THE. A.U DU BON’? SB U Lelie 
Book Review 
Birps or MipwAY AND LAYSAN ISLANDS, by Alfred M. Bailey. Published by 
the Publication Department, Denver Museum of Natural History, City 
Park, Denver, Colorado. 130 pages, 82 illustrations, paper-bound, $2.00. 1956. 
Mr. Bailey needs no introduction to our readers. A life member of this 
Society, and a former associate of the Chicago Natural History Museum, 
he has presented “Audubon Screen Tours” before us, and at least one of 
his books, Red Crossbills of Colorado, has been reviewed in these pages. This 
is the 12th in the ““Museum Pictorial” series, which began in 1951 with his 
Nature Photography with Miniature Cameras (now out of print). 
Like all of Mr. Bailey’s work, this book is illustrated with superb photo- 
graphs, mainly by the author. The book covers a span of 58 years pictorial- 
ly, and includes two chapters on the history of the Leeward Island chain, 
and on plants recorded from Midway and Laysan, by E, H. Bryan, Jr., 
of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, The major part of the book, besides the 
pictures, consists of detailed descriptions of every species of birds found 
on Midway and Laysan Islands. 
Alfred Bailey, as a boy of 18, spent three months on Laysan in 1913, and 
subsequently visited Midway, Pearl and Hermes, and other atolls in the 
chain. He was a member of an expedition sent out to destroy the rabbits 
that were then consuming the vegetation on Laysan. Not all of the rodents 
were killed at that time, but in 1923 they destroyed themselves by devouring 
every growing plant on the island. As a result, the Laysan Honey-Eater 
(beautifully illustrated in color on the frontispiece), the Laysan Rail, and 
other species endemic to the island became extinct, Returning in 1949 to 
cover this same island chain, Mr, Bailey found that another introduced 
species, the brown rat, had finished the work begun by the rabbit. All too 
many of the birds portrayed in this book have not been seen alive again. 
Some, like the Laysan Teal, have been much in the ornithological news 
lately because of their precarious struggle for existence. 
In spite of its unhappy recital, this little volume is a valuable addition 
to any nature-lover’s library. It is worth obtaining for the pictures alone, 
to say nothing of its absorbing narrative of the author’s expedition as an 
eager college student on his first sea voyage. And Birds of Midway and 
Laysan Islands has great value as an object lesson of the evil that man 
can do to native birds and animals by the introduction of foreign species. 
Paul H. Lobik, 4835 Wabansia Ave., Chicago 39 
New Officers Elected 
We have received notice of new officers of two I. A. S. affiliates, as follows: 
Bureau Valley Audubon Club: Mr. Hiram Piper, President; Mr. E. W. 
Whitten, Vice-President; Mrs. E. W. Whitten, Secretary; Miss Ethel Sharp, 
Corresponding Secretary; Mr. Ellis Rudiger, Treasurer, all of Princeton, 
Illinois. White Pines Bird Club: Mrs. Harry A. Shaw, President, Sterling; 
Mrs. J. G. Seise, Vice-President, Polo; Mrs. Oscar Vietmeier, Secretary- 
Treasurer, Forreston. | 
