Bird lore - Project Puffin

%ook Ji^ettjs; anti Ctetiietos;
LiTTLK Bird Hlik. By William L. and
Irenk Kinlkv. With illustrations l)y
R. Bruce Horsfall and from i)hotogra])hs.
Boston and New York. Houghton,
Mifflin Company, 1915. ()0 pages,
numerous half-tones. Price 75 cents.
The authors of this little volume know
both birds and children, and they interweave
the strands of their story of bird-
life and child-life in a way which should
make a bird-lover of every child who reads
it. We know of no better 'first book of
birds.'— F. M. C.
The Winter Biru-Life of Minnesota-
By Thomas S. Roberts, M.D., Ornithologist
to the Department of Animal
Biology, University of Minnesota and
Associate Director of the Zoological
Division of the Geological and Natural
History Survey of Alinnesota. Occasional
Papers of the Zoological Division
of the Geological and Natural History
Survey of Alinnesota. No. i, Minneapolis,
Minn., Feb. 1916. 4to, 20 pages,
colored frontispiece, 13 half-tones.
This attractive-looking brochure is
both authoritative and popular. It is
therefore of equal value to the student who
desires only its contained information on
distribution for faunal purposes, as well as
to the local bird-lover who would know
when and where to look for birds during
the winter in Minnesota, and how to
identify those found. In addition to notes
on times of occurrence, relative numbers,
and field characters there is also more or
less information in regard to habits.
Ninety-one species and subspecies are
treated. Of these thirty-five are classed as
Permanent Residents, seventeen as Winter
\'isilants, eleven as Half-Hardy Winter
Visitants, and twentj'-seven as Accidental.
The illustrations include a number of
reproductions of interesting photographs
from nature and a colored frontispiece of
the Evening Grosbeak.
Publications of this kind arc well
designed to promote interest in local
bird-study, and to bring their author in
touch with field-workers throughout the
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area covered. Indeed, Dr. Roberts states
that "one of the considerations in present-
ing this pajjcr on our winter birds is the
hope that it will bring to the Natural His-
tory Survey much additional information
in regard to the bird-life of the State."
Dr. Roberts may be addressed at the
Zoological Museum, University of Min-
nesota, Minneapolis.—F. M. C.
—
In a Cheshire Garden. By (i. Kgerton-Warburton,
Rector of Warburton.
Sherratt and Hughes, 34 Cross St., Manchester,
England. i2mo, 117 pages, 7
half-tones. Price 65 cents.
These chapters on the birds of an Eng-
lish garden arc pleasantly reminiscent of
Gilbert White and Selborne. With our
growing interest in bird-gardening, they
should appeal to us as a record of the
relations established between human-life
and bird-life in a country where bird and
man were intimately associated when our
own land was still a primeval wilderness.
F. M. C.
Birds of Porto Rico. By Alex Wetmore,
Assistant Ornithologist, United
States Department of Agriculture, Bulletin
No. 325. Contributed from the
Bureau of Biological Surve)', Washington,
March 24, 1916. 8vo, 140 pages,
cohjred frontispiece, map, 7 half-tone
plates. For sale by Superintendent of
Documents, Washington, D. C. Price.
30 cents.
In response to a request from the Com-
missioners of Agriculture of Porto Rico,
the Biological Survey sent Mr. Wctmore
to Porto Rico to study the economic rela-
tions of its birds. Mr. Wetmore began
his field-work on December 13, 1911, and
continued it until September 11, 191 2.
During this time he gathered much information
in regard to the bird-life of the
island and 2,200 birds' stomachs. The con-
tents of these stomachs having been
determined, he now presents the results of
his labors in field and laboratory in this
report. It contains introductory sections