Page:Bird-lore Vol 08.djvu/216

 ilooft J^etD0 anti 3&etrieto0 The Birds of the Cambridge Region of Massachusetts. By William Brewster. Memoirs of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, No. IV. Published by the Club, Cambridge, Mass., July, 1906. 4to. 426 pp., 4 plates, 3 maps. It is fortunate that the portion of North America whose birds have been studied longest and most thoroughly should have for its present-day historian, a writer who, through his natural gifts, training and ex- perience, is ideally prepared to carry the torch borne in turn by Nuttall, Minot, and other early workers. Not only is the continuity of the ornitho- logical record, as a whole, not approached by that of any other similarly restricted area in this country, but we believe that no other living American ornithologist has so ex- tended, accurate and intimate a knowledge of the birds of a given locality as has William Brewster of the birds of Cam- bridge. In short, opportunity and the man have here joined forces to produce what, beyond question, is the most interesting and valuable Local List of birds which has been published in this country. A table of contents having, doubtless through an oversight, been omitted, we append a summary of the book's chapter and section headings, which, at a glance, will reveal the author's plan of treatment: Page Preface 3 Introduction 7 The Cambridge Region 11 Old Cambridge and Cambridgeport ii Our Garden n The Fields Along V assail Lane. . 19 Gray's Woods 20 Norton's Woods 20 Cambridgeport 25 Back Bay Basin 29 Charles River Marshes 30 The Mount Auburn Region ... 33 Fresh Pond 36 The Fresh Pond Swamps, or Fresh Pond Marshes 42 The Pine Sivamp and Pout Pond. 45 ( The Maple Sivamp 47 The Brickyard Sivamp 48 Muskrat Pona 49 The Glacialis or Artificial . . 49 Beech Island or Block Island . . 50 Great Meadow, East Lexington. 51 Rock Meadow 51 Beaver Brook Reservation and Waverly Oaks 52 The Wren Orchard 53 Status of Occurrence 54 Faunal Changes 61 Introduction of the House Sparrow 65 Early Writers and Ornithologists. 69 Annotated List of the Birds of the Cambridge Region .... 85 Additional Notes 397 Explanation of Plates 399 Index 401 Errata 426 This mere outline indicates the wide scope of the author's plan, which an exami- nation of the subject matter, with its wealth of data and detailed observation, shows has been realized in a manner not only to make the book entertaining reading, but highly satisfactory as a work of reference. Although relating primarily to the birds of a small area, so much of the contents of this volume is of more than local interest that we are tempted to quote at length from it. Under 'Faunal Changes, ' the author remarks (p. 61): "Some of the principal changes which have taken place in the fauna of the Cambridge Region during the past thirty or forty years relate to (1) Birds whose local increase may be attributed to changes in local conditions; — as the Bittern, Green Heron, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Redstart and Long-billed Marsh Wren. (2) Birds whose local increase is evidently due to recent local protection; — as the Herring Gull, Black Duck, Whistler and Crow. (3) Birds whose local decrease is apparently due chiefly, if not wholly, to changes in local conditions ; — as the Chimney Swift, Bobolink, Meadowlark, Barn Swallow, Bank Swallow and Pine Warbler. (4) 17+)