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 July, 1910 PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED 137 rily proved to inhabit Cheshire during the present and last centuries. The common and scientific names of each species are given, and also the various local names in use. Many of the latter are very curious, and all are of in- terest. The status in the county of each species is given in brief, in a single sentence at the head of each one treated. The classification and nomenclature adopted is that used in Saunders' "List of British Birds' ', 1907 edition, binomials being used except when a British race is. distinguishable from Conti- nental birds of the same species. "In these cases we have thought it advisable to adopt the trinomial system of nomenclature, which in addition to other advantages shows plainly the real affinities of the locil races or sub-species." Why, after such a concession, it was not thought advisable to use the system uniformly thruout the work, it is hard to understand. The manner of occurrence together with the life histories of the various species are treated at length while the food of some of the birds is discust in detail. There are numerous excel- lent illustrations, mostly general views show- ing the habitats of various species of birds.-- H. S.S. A FEw NOTES ON THE HABITS, LIFE HISTO- RY AND ECONOMIC VALUE OF DovES. The Raising of Young. Waxwings, hnpeles [sic] cedrorttm. By William H. Gates. Bulletin 14, Gulf Biologic Station, Cameron, La.; pp. 1- 32; 1909. In this paper Gates gives many interesting details of the life history of doves about Cam- cron, La. It is noteworthy that nesting be- gins no earlier there than it does much farther north, for instance in southern Indiana, that is, about April 1. The writer notes a high propor- tion of nests destroyed, namely 80 out of 111. The most important natural enemies are the black king snake and the brown rat. Incubation consumes from 19 to 21 days. The first egg is hatcht from 24 to 36 hours be- fore the second, resulting in a markt difference in the size of the young which is notisable tip to the third week. Gates says: "The crop capacity of young doves is enormous; up to the time they are three or four weeks old it is possible for them to hold over one-half of their weightof food in the crop. Itislikely that in the state of nature the young are not fed more than three times a day, generally but twice, and often not more than once, especially after the young get to be a week or so old and do not need to be brooded." "The average of 78 weighings taken before and after feeding showed an increase of 36 percent of their own weight. The maximum amount of food given, among those that were observed, was in the case of a squab that weighed 53 grams at $ o'clock, before feeding, and at 6:15 swung the balance at 88 grams, showing that 35 grams of food had been taken, or a crop capacity of over 66 percent of its own weight." It is not sur- prising therefore that the young birds gain weight very rapidly. "Birds kept in the house gained., respectively, from 31 and 34 grams to 65 and 67 grams during the third week, and up to 95.5 and 96 grams during the next." "Doves raised by tlle writer have been found to eat between 75 percent and 120 percent of . their own weight of food per day, fronI the time they are hatched up to the time they are three weeks old. From then on the amount lessens rapidly till they become adult, when they will eat but 7 percent to 10 percent of their own weight." The actual weight of food consumed during the first 3 weeks is from 8 to 28 grams per day, from the third week on from 10 to 18 grams. In the wild state doves prob- ably consume from 15 'to 20 percent of their own weight of food. On the basis of 15 per- cent "it would take 33 grams a day to maintain a pair of doves, which allowing an average of' 30 grams a day for food fed to the young dur- ing six weeks of the summer, amounts to over 30 pounds a year; at which rate it would take but 66 pairs to consume a ton of feed a year." Gates finds that only a small proportion of the food is grain and that wholly waste. Most of the subsistence is obtained from the seeds of weeds. He mentions the shootSng of doves on account of the alleged scattering by thein of the seeds of indigo weed, a pest in rice. The doves eat tbe seeds for the nourishlnent' con- tained in them and it certainly is an unusual happening for one to pass thru the strong gizzard entire. This unjust persecution of the doves should stop. The writer presents the first evidence we have seen that doves ever voluntarily take liv- ing insects; he says birds in captivity were seen eating ants. Notes are given also on the nesting and food habits, and the rearing of the young of the nonpareil, bluebird and cedar- bird.--W. L. M. AN ORNITHOLOGICAL RECONNAISSANCE OF *ORTHEASTERN VENEZUELA BY C. VILLIAM BEEBE (Zoologia, vol. 1, no. 3, Dec., 1909, pp. 67-114, figs. 21-37). The main body of the paper is taken up with the list of birds ob- served. with more or less extensive annota- tions pertaining to the life histories, habits, color variations, etc. Parts one, two, and three are devoted to the itinerary and accounts of the character of the country explored, while part five is a general summing up of ecological con- ditions, together with a comparison of con- ditions in Venezuela and New York State. Descriptions of nesting habits of many of the species are of interest, especially so from the standpoint of such considerations as those pre- sented in the paper by Peck on the same sub-,