Book News and Reviews
Audubon Bird Chart No. 2. Prang Educational Co., Boston and New York. Price, $1.30. With Common Birds: Second Series, by Ralph Hoffmann. Mass. Audubon Society, Boston. i2mo. Pages 20. It is a pleasure to know that the excel- lent Audubon Bird Chart No. i, issued by the Massachusetts Audubon Society, in 1898 (see Bird- Lore, Vol. I, p 27), has met with a success which has warranted the Society in issuing this Chart No. 2. Like Chart No. i, it contains life-size figures of twenty-six birds reproduced in color even more effectively than those of the previously published chart. This chart, as was the case with its predecessor, is ac- companied by a pamphlet by Mr. Ralph Hoffmann, containing well-written biogra- phies of the twenty-six birds figured. We especially commend these Bird Charts, with their accompanying text-books, to teachers, as the most satisfactory invest- ments for the class-room, from an orni- thologist's point of view, of which we know.— F. M. C. Birds of the Yukon Region, with Notes on Other Species. By Louis B. Bishop, M.D. North American Fauna, No. ig, pages 47-96, Washington, igoo. During the summer and early autumn of 1899 Dr. Bishop accompanied Mr. Wilfred H. Osgood, of the Biological Survey, on a ^'biological reconnaissance of the Yukon River region." The route lay over the White Pass to the headwaters of the Yukon and thence down this river to its mouth. Dr. Bishop presents an introduc- tion on the general features of the bird-life of this little-known part of our country, tables of distribution, and a well-annotated list of 171 species and sub species. Three of these — Cayiachites ca)iadc?isis osg'oodi, Sayot'fiis saya ynko)U')isis. and Cojitofus richardsoni satiiratus — he has previously ■described as new (' Auk,' April, 1899). Dr. Bishop is to be congratulated on the success attending an expedition which was evidently not lacking in hardships, and on the admirable manner in which he has presented its results — F. M. C. (197; Food of the Bobolink, Blackbirds, and Grackles. By F. E. L. Beal, B.S., xssistant Biologist. Bull. No. 13, U S. Dept. of Agriculture, Division of Biological Survey. Washington, 1900. Pages 77, I map, 3 cuts, 2 diagrams. In this Bulletin, Professor Beal con- tinues his important studies of the food of North American birds, taking, for inves- tigation, a group of birds which are as widely condemned by the average agricul- turalist as are Hawks and Owls. While it does not appear from Professor Beal's extended researches that these birds are as deserving of protection as are the Hawks and Owls, it is evident that their destructive abilities are greatly over-esti- mated. Indeed, of the nine species whose food has been studied only one is con- demned, and this, every bird-lover will regret to learn, is our Bobolink, of which it is said, " Facts force the belief that until some practical method shall be devised to prevent its ravages upon the rice crop there can be no other conclusion than that the good done by the Bobolink does not in any appreciable measure counte-bal- ance the harm. " Lack of space forbids an adequate notice of Professor Beal's paper, which should be in the hands of everyone interested in learning the economic status of our birds. — F. M. C, Information Concerning Game ; Sea- sons, Shipments, and Sale. By T. S. Palmer and H. W Olds. Circular No. 31, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Division of Biological Survey. Wash- ington, 1900. Pages 20. The publication of this pamphlet fur- ther illustrates the wisdom of the drawers of the Lacey Bill when they made the Biological Survey responsible for its en- forcement ; and it will not be the fault of the Survey if the public remains in ignorance of the provisions of this act. The contents of this circular are indi- cated by its title, and its publication by the government gives to it an authorita- tiveness lacking in other compilations of the game laws. — F. M. C.
197
