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124 Bird -Lore Thus the White-crowned Sparrow is said to occur in March, the Blackburnian Warbler is spoken of as among the earliest of its family, and is said to arrive the second week in April, a date which is also given for the first appearance of the Magnolia Warbler, but the Yellow Palm Warbler is not to be looked tor until the fourth week of the month. The coming of the Yellow-throated Vireo is set down for the first week in April, and the Yellow- winged Sparrow, which is said to be "rarely seen" far from the seashore, is stated to reach us the second work in April. The Chebec is alluded to as possessing an exquisite voice, and is said to nest in bushes. This lack of exactness, of which other evidences could be given, detracts from the value of the book for those who desire to compare their own records with those here given ; but the general reader will find that the rise and fall of the bird-life of the year are described in an instructive and, in the main, accurate manner ; and it is to the general reader, rather than the enthusiastic specialist, that the book is addressed. — F. M. C. Bulletin No. 12 U. S Department of Agri- culture, Division of Biological Survey. Legislation for the Protection of Birds other th.an Game Birds. By T. S. Palmer, Assistant Chief of the Bio- logical Survey. Prepared under the di- rection of Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Chief of Biological Survey, Washington, Gov- ernment Printing Office. 8vo. Pages 94- Ills. Only a person who has had occasion to ascertain the non-game bird law of a given state can fully appreciate the value of the service which Dr. Palmer has rendered to every one interested in bird-protective leg- islation by presenting, in one volume, the laws ( or absence of them ) of every state and territory in the Union and of the Cana- dian provinces. This 'Bulletin, ' however, is not only of value as a reference book or 'digest, ' but it reveals the surprisingly in- adequate laws which exist in most of our states for the protection of non-game birds, and thus furnishes a definite point of de- parture in the attempt to secure for these birds as effective legal protection as is gen- erally accorded game birds. But Dr. Palmer's work is not merely a compilation, over one-half of it being de- voted to a ' General Discussion of Protec- tive Legislation,' where are authoritatively treated such moot subjects as the definition of a game bird, the value of birds of prey, etc.. with other matter relating to the needs of bird protection, destruction of birds for millinery purposes, issuance of permits for collecting, licenses, etc. Here also are presented histories of the Hoar, Teller and Lacey bird-protective bills and a slightly amended and annotated reprint of the model bird law proposed by the Am- erican Ornithologists' Union. We cannot be too grateful to Dr. Palmer for the admirable manner in which, in this Bulletin No. 12, he has evolved order out of chaos in matters relating to legislation for non-game birds. — F. M. C. "Warblers' Songs. By Lynds Jones. Wilson Bulletin No. 30. Oberlin, Ohio January, 1900. Pages 56. The philosophic student of birds' lan- guage, will find in this paper much to interest him, while bird-lovers, to whom the Warblers are a source of despair, may receive from it very effective aid in making identifications. It was a very happy idea of Mr. Jones to thus bring together between two covers, what has been written in description of Warblers' Songs, and the value of his paper has been greatly increased by the addition of his own observations and those of the members of the Wilson Ornitholo- gical Chapter, who have assisted him. An ' Introduction ' gives the reasons for presenting the paper, and the manner in which the material contained in it was secured, and is followed by an extended bibliography and discussion of the types of Warblers' songs, song-periods, kinds of song, variability, etc. He w^rites feelingly of the difficulties encountered in attempting to describe the songs of most Warblers, and then treats serially each of the fifty- seven species and sixteen subspecies of this family which have been found in North America. — F. M. C.