Bird lore - Project Puffin

i86 Bird -Lore
on the 'Physiography of Porto Rico' and
its 'Bird-Life,' 'Methods of Increasing
Birds,' 'Introduction of Birds' and an
Annotated List of Species (pp. 17-129).
In this list we have a thorough treatment
of the status of the 162 species known from
the area under consideration with remarks
on their habits and as detailed a statement
of their food as the data obtained warrants.
The whole forms a most satisfactory
memoir on Porto Rican bird-life and a
unique contribution to our knowledge of
the food-habits of tropical birds. A colored
frontispiece and five full-page half-tones
of Porto Rican birds, by Fuertes, add to
the value of this publication.—F. M. C.
Our Dooryard Friends. By Sara V.
Prueser. The Platform, Steinway Hall,
Chicago, 1915. i2mo, 204 pages, 2
colored plates, 36 half-tones, 1 7 line-cuts.
Brand Whitlock, who writes an intro-
duction to this little volume, confesses
that in reading it he has been reproached
by an ignorance of his own land; by a
failure to realize "that there was so much
of interest going on in it as Miss Prueser
has discovered within a few yards of her
own door." How often the nature-lover
hears this same thought expressed by those
who envy him the obvious resources he
has discovered in the world immediately
around him!
This invaluable knowledge of the animate
forms about us cannot be acquired
in a day. It grows with us, becomes part
of us, and retains its power to add to the
pleasure and sweetness of life long after
our interest in more material things has
vanished. Books like Miss Prueser's
dealing with the birds of our dooryards
are well designed to open the gate which
may lead to the larger joys of the fields
and forests lying beyond. She writes of
the Chickadees, Nuthatches, and 'Down-
ies,' Blue Jays, Phoebes, and Cardinals
and other birds which meet us more than
half-way when we extend the hand of
friendship to the inhabitants of the feathered
world and make us realize how
much more they can add to our lives than
we can to theirs.— F. M. C.
The Bird Poems of Miles A. Davis.
Published by John White Johnston,
Rochester, N. Y. Printed by the Roycrofters,
East Aurora, N. Y., 1916.
i6mo, 37 pages.
In this dainty booklet Mr. Davis pays
his tribute in verse to the charms of bird-
life. The Robin, the Bluebird, the Oriole,
the Bobolink, and other familiar birds of
garden and meadow arouse within him a
poet's appreciation of their beauty of form
and song; while the Wild Goose and
Stormy Petrel stir his muse to eloquent
expression of their mastery of the air or
wide spaces of the sea.
Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson writes a sym-
pathetic introduction to this collection of
poems, which will, we are sure, find favor
with all nature-lovers.—F. M. C.
The Ornithological Magazines
The Auk.—In the April issue no less
than three writers touch on Audubon and
his work: Mr. J. E. Thayer under the title
'Auduboniana' presents to our notice four
half-tones of original water-color draw-
ings, with a couple of letters written in
1841; Mr. G. B. Grinnell also presents a
couple of letters written in 1833, and Mr.
S. N. Rhoads throws 'More Light on Audu-
bon's Folio, Birds of America.'
Dr. W. M. Tyler takes up a neglected
phase of bird-migration and writes on
'The Call-notes of Some Nocturnal Migrating
Birds,' but there is hardly the mystery
about the notes that he implies, for none
of them are essentially other than those
that may be heard by day. The striking
call of the Olive-backed Thrush, for in-
stance, may be commonly heard in the
summer months on the northern breedinggrounds
of the species.
The title 'Bird Watching and Biological
Science' by Mr. J. S. Huxley, is a contri-
bution to what might be called psycholog-
ical ornithology. It is easy to become imbued
with modern ideas, and there is a
tendency among writers on this subject to
think along in print rather than to present
clear-cut conclusions. A molehill of fact
is often made to produce a mountain of
theory, and facts as stated by amateurs