Bird lore - Project Puffin

2^oofe ^ebjsi anb Ctebietoj;
British Birds. Written and Illustrated
by A. Thorburn, F.Z.S. With eighty
plates in colors, showing over four hundred
species. In four volumes. Vol. II.
Longmans, Green & Co., London and
New York. 1915. 4to pages, vi + 72;
plates, 21-40.
All that we said in reviewing* the first
volume of this superb work applies with
equal truth to volume two. The twenty
plates it includes figure the Crows, Larks,
Picariae (Swifts, Woodpeckers, Cuckoos,
etc.). Owls, Hawks, Cormorant, Gannet,
and Herons. Mr. Thorburn again demon-
strates his skill in grouping a number of
not closely related species on the same
plate and, where circumstances permit
of the inclusion of but a single species on
a plate and consequent greater breadth
of treatment, he gives us a masterly exhi-
bition of his art; as, for e.xample, in the
plates of the Golden Eagle and Eagle Owl.
The remaining two of the four volumes
which complete, this monograph are
promised for 1916.—F. M. C.
How TO Attract Wild Birds About
THE Home. By Neil Morrow Ladd,
President of the Greenwich Bird Protective
Society, Inc. With an Introduction
by Charles D. Lanier. To which is
added the First Annual Report of the
Greenwich, Conn., Bird Protective
Society. 8vo. 68 pages, 40 illustrations,
mostly from photographs taken by the
author. Price, 35 cents.
This publication is worthy of rank with
the reports of the Meriden and Brush
Hill Bird Clubs. It contains much practical
information in regard to the ways and
means of attracting and protecting birds
and of conducting bird clubs, and it contains
also a record of what may be accom-
plished by well-directed, persistent eflorts
to arouse the residents of any community
to an appreciation of the beauty and use-
fulness of birds.
Everyone interested in the problems of
local bird clubs will do well to get a copy
of Mr. Ladd's attractive booklet.—F. M. C.
Bird-Lore, XVII, July-August, 1915, p. 294.
(43)
The Ornithological Magazines
The Condor.—The half-dozen general
papers in the October number of 'The
Condor' are unusually varied in character.
In a delightful description of 'Character-
istic Birds of the Dakota Prairies,' Mrs.
Florence Merriam Bailey gives an account
of the short-cared Owl, the Prairie Chicken,
Sharp- tailed Grouse, Longspur, Lark Bunting,
and other species found 'in the open
grassland.' An extinct 'Walking Eagle
from Rancho La Brea, California,' is
described by Loye Holmes Miller under
the name M orphi us daggelti. This remark-
able 'Eagle on stilts' had a tarsus as long
as that of the Great Blue Heron, and in
some respects evidently resembled the
Secretary Bird of South Africa.
Two of the shorter papers read before
the A. O. U. Congress on the Herring Gull
and the California Woodpecker are pub-
lished in full. In discussing the 'Estimated
Average Age of the Herring Gull' from
data collected in New York Harbor,
Nichols reaches the conclusion that there
is a very heavy mortality in birds between
the first and second winters, and that the
average age of those which survive the first
season is 16.2 years. In 'A Late Nesting
Record for the California Woodpecker,'
Mrs. Myers mentions two broods of young
found at Los Angeles, one on September
II, and the other on October 19.
Dr. L. B. Bishop contributes critical
notes on 13 species of California birds, and
describes the Dwarf Savannah Sparrow
resident in southwestern British Columbia
as a new sub-species under the name
Passerculus sandwichensis brooksi, based
on a specimen collected at Chilliwack,
B. C, by Allan C. Brooks.
'A Partial List of the Summer Resi-
dent Land Birds of Monterey County,
California,' is given by Pcmberton and
Carriger from notes made on two trips in
December 1903 and May 1909. It contains
notes on 100 species, and is illustrated by