Page:Condor14(3).djvu/31

 May, 1912
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.... ::.-:.::.::: "" .. .-.... EDITORIAI, NOTES AND NEWS 109 THE CONDOI A I[agazine of '/etern Ornithology, Published' Bi-Monthly by the Cooper Ornltholo$ical Club J. GRINNELL, Editor, Berkeley, C11foria BARRY S. SWARTH, Aocite Editor J. EUGENE LAW } Business Mnagers W. LEE CHAMBERS Hollywood, California: Published May 15, 1912 $UD$CIIPTION RATES One Dollar and Fifty Cents per Year in the United States, Canada, Mexico and U.S. Colonies, payable in advance Thirty Cents the single copy. One Dollar and Seventy-five Cents per Year in all other countries in the International Postal Union. Claims for missing' or imperfect numbers should be made within thirty days of date of issue. Subsceiptions and Exchanges should be sent to the Business Manager. Menuscrlpts for publication, and Books and Pu. pers for review. should b sent to the Editor. Advertising Rates on application. EDITORIAL NOTES AND NEWS Avifauna number 7 is in galley proof, and with fair luck should be off the press ready for distribution to Cooper Club members by August first. The subject of this paper is "The Birds of the Pacific Slope of Southern California." It consists of concise statements of seasonal and geographical distribution, nesting time and manner of nidification. Mr. W. Leon Dawson is in the field in San Luis Obispo County, doubtless succes}ful in securing photographic studies of certain .Raptures necessary to the completeness of his ."Birds of California." The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of California is represented in field exploration this year as follows: Mr. H. S. Swarth and Mr. H. A. Carr are at work in Owens Valley, with base stations at Lone Pine, Keeler and Independence, successively. Mr. W. P. Taylor and Mr. F. H. Holden (to be succeeded later by Mr. T. I. Storer) are tracing out the distribution of certain .rodents in the Sacramento Valley. Mr. J. Grinnell, in company with Mr. J. S. Hunter, an agent of the State Fish' and Game Commission, is investigating the status of game animals in the mountainous region of Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Kern counties. All this seasun's work is thus within the State of California. COMMUNICATION EDIT(JR OF T.E CoNooR: Mr. H. S. Swarth in his review of my "Monograph of the Broad-winged Hawk" feels that a few points, which he cites, could have been made more clear and explicit. In justice to my work, I would state that the evidence presented under the head of "Local Distribution" gave me no choice other than the restriction of the summer range of Buteo platypterus platypterus "south to Florida and Central Texas." Though Zeledon briefly states that it "breeds" in Costa Rica, and I have faithfully. tartscribed the comparative descri.ption .and' position of the nest in Central America according to Salvin and Godman, I can find no specific record of its breeding, or the capture of the bird in the breeding season, south of the line given. Sometime before I had decided to insert a name for the small, dark Cuban bird, with the heavily banded thighs and wing lining, the entire manuscript was ready for publication, too late to upset the entire plan of the work. Also, I feel that I, a bumble amateur, was not sufficiently impressed with the importance of a mere form. The Bayate specimen described on pp. 147-148. is of course the type of Buteo platypterus cubaBe,sis. Yours truly, FR^i( L. BuRs. PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED THE HOME-LIFE [ OF [ THE OSPREY J Pho- tographed and described ] by ] CLITO G. ABBOTT, B. A. [ Associate of the American Ornithologists' Union [ with some photo- graphs by Howard H. Cleaves, Associate of [ the American Ornithologists' Union. I With thirty-two Mounted Plates I London I Witherby & Co., 326 High Holborn W. C. [ MCMXI. Large 8vo, cloth, pp. 1-54, pls. 1-32. In America to be bought for $2 at Bretano's,-229 Fifth Ave., New York City. This treatment of a single bird species is, in the recollection and judgment of the re- viewer, among the most faithful, as well as comprehensive, that has ever appeared. The text is admirably composed, from both a lit- erary standpoint and that of ornithological veracity. An element of conciseness is appar- ent which accounts for a compass of fifty- four pages, where a modern "nature-writer" might have made two hundred. No less fascinating than the text are the first-quality illustrations, selected each to show some particular feature of behavior of the birds, or construction'of their nests. These photographs demonstrate a very close ac- quaintance on the part of the author with the subject of his essay. If proof were needed, this is alone sufficient to give the read- er confidence in all the details of the au- thor's narration of his experiences with the Osprey. It might be urged that the Osprey, in the haunts where Mr. Abbott's studies were car- ried on, vas an easy'%ubject, because the