May, 1910 EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS 111 THE CONDOIk An Illustrated lv[agazine of Western Ornitholog?- Publisht Bi-Monthly by the. Coop/2r OrnithMQ/[i - eal Club of Californiu, JOSEPH GRINNELL. Editor, ' Berkeloy. J. F, VGENE LAW. Burincas Mu, Jxager. Hollywood; Cal. W. LEE CHAMBEKS, Business MaJxafJer. Monle,&, Cal. HARKY S. SWA?.TH ) . . ROBERT B. ROCKWELL f Assoatu?te Editors? Hollywood, California: Publish[May 17, 1910 SUDSCB, IPTION[ RATES. One Dollar &nd Fifty Cenl? per Year in the United States, Mexico, and U. S. Colonies. payable in advance. Thirty Cents the single copy. One Dollar &nd SeVenty-fiVe Cents per Year in all other countries in the International POStAl Union Clalnm for missing or imperfect numbers sho?"ld'?be made within thirty days of date of issue. Subacrlptioas and Exchanges should be sent to .tile Busmes? Manager. M?nuscripts for publication, &nd Books and P?pers for review should b? scut to the Editor. Advertising Rates on application. EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS Word has been received from Mr. Edmund Heller, who has jnst returned to Washington at the close of his year in the field, collecting African mammals in the party headed by Col- onel Roosevelt. That the expedition was highly successful in the collection of zoologi- cal specimens is well known, but Mr. Heller also speaks most enthusiastically of the many enjoyable features of the trip. The party proved very congenial and no serious mishaps or accidents were suffered at any time--sub- jects for congratulation on so long a trip in such a difficult cormtry. Mr. Heller's present address is the United States National Museum, Department of/glarereals, but he anticipates a year's work on the specimens secnred, most of which time will be spent in London and Ber- lin. Mr. Walter P. Taylor, with two assistants, leaves on May 15 for a summer's tr/pinto the Warner Mountains of northeastern California. The expeditiou will collect birds, mammals and reptiles for the University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, in which in- stitution Mr. Taylor is Assistant Curator of M?m:nds. Th? results Of this trip shotfid certainly be of great interest, especially so taken in connection with the collections made by him in northwestera. Nevada during the past summer. PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED A HISTORY OF THE BIRDS oF KENT. BY NORMAN 1 ?. TICEHURST, .[. A., 1 q'. R. C. 8., F. Z. S., M. B. O.U. With twenty-four plates and a map. Witherby & Co.. London, 1909-- 8 vo. pp. i-lvi + 1--568. Price 21s. net.
This is a carefully detailed account of the
birds found in a comparatively limited terri- tory (the County of Kent, we are told, com- prises some 1554 square miles). In the intro- duction descriptions are given of the geology, topography, and physiography of the region, as well as historical sketches of the various museums-and collections contained in the county, while several pages are devoted to a discussion of the somewhat complex migratory movements of the birds, as here observed. In the 557 pages in which they are treated in detail, 312 specie? are included, as well as forty-two "dot?btful species." The author ap- pears to be' concerned nminly in the manner of occurrence of the birds listed, and this, as well as the historical aspect of the case, is treated in the greatest detail. In the cases of the rarer species each individual specimen seems to have been lookt up, and verified or discredited, as it might be, so carefully that the book should certainly be considered as authoritative in ?thts regard. The author is certainly com- mendably conservative in declining to accept doubtful records, and need hardly apologize for discrediting the one relating to the alleged occurrence of the White-winged Crossbill ia leucol?tera), on the basis of birds seen by "an anonymous correspondent's friend's gar- dener"! Nesting and other habits are dismist with but slight consideration, for reasons given in the preface, tho in some instances--notably the House Sparrow and the Starling, as of interest in this country--the question as to the harmful or beneficial nature of the bird is disoust at some length. In regard to the "vexed question of no- menclature", binomials are adhered to except where two or more geographical races of the same species have occurred in the county, or where the British form of a species is recog- nized as distinct from the continental, in which cases the trinomial is employed--such exceptions being so numerous thai it seems as tho it would have been simpler to have used the latter system thruout The illustrations, of birds and of general views ot ? the cormtry, are attractive and inter- esting; while a quite extensive bibliography and an appended map add much to the value of the book. Altogether such a work, carefully done as this appears to have been, cannot fail to be of great value. Altho individuals may regret the absence of more extended comment on phases of the subject in which they are more directly interested, still the recordifig of facts, the statement of conditions as they have been and as they are, cannot fail to be of greater and greater value as time goes on, and the future worker in British ornithology should find such a book as this of the greatest assist- ance in his labors. H.S.
