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 Jan., 1913 PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED 47 drop the worker after crushing it in their bill to get the honey. In the examination of 3,398 stomachs of fly- catchers the animal food was found to aver- age 94.99 per cent and the vegetable 5.1 per cent. The presence of a considerable percent- age of parasitic Hymenoptera in the stomachs of flycatchers appears to be the one thing that makes their service questionable. However, "weighing as impartially as possible the in- juries done and the benefits conferred by them, their good qualities outweigh the bad." The tables giving a summary of the results of the stomach examinations furnish an in- teresting comparison of the food of the dir- erent species. The long lists of identified in- sects show careful and painstaking work. Al- though these lists may be overlooked by most of the farmers reading the bulletin, they give the publication a more permanent value than it would otherwise have.--H. C. BRYANT. A HISTORY oF THE C-AME BIRDS, WILD-FowL AND SHORE BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTs AND .]'ACENT STATES, by EDWARD HOWE FORBUSH, State Ornithologist of Massachusetts. (Is- sued by the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture.) 1912; 8 vo, pp. xvi-4-622, 36 pls., 26 figs. Of great immediate, practical use in the swelling campaign against the extermination of American game animals, the book under notice deserves warmest commendation. Its purpose is admirably realized in the scientifi- cally accurate tenor of treatment throughout, combined with the logical and convincing sequence of the subjects as presented. Here we find just the information needed in regard to the history and in some cases direful fate of Atlantic Coast game birds, and from which lessons can be drawn as to how not to treat our Pacific Coast birds. It is too bad that it is impracticable to secure wide dis- tribution in the west, of Mr. Forbush's work, because of the limited edition and local mands for it. If sportsmen and legislators could but acquire some of the knowledge therein made so clear, a long step would have been taken towards securing proper treatment of our game before it is too late. It is not possible to adequately describe the book in its numerous useful details, in our limited space; but some of our readers may be interested to know that, as long as they last, copies can be purchased at bare cost price plus postage ($1.40 in all) by addressing the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, 136 State House, Boston, Mass.--J'. GRINNELL. THE PHYLOGENETIC VALIYE OF COLOR CHAR- ACTERs IN BIRDS. BY WITMER STONE, A.M. (Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 2nd ser., xv, Dec. 4, 1912, pp. 313-319, pl. 27). This brief paper is a multum in parvo of first-grade philosophic ornithology. We have of late heard a great deal about the meaning of coloration. Mr. Stone recalls the reader's attention from the various concealing and direct-action-of-environment theories, and in. rites him to consider some facts more easily explained upon grounds of directire or phylo- genetic significance. Whole groups--genera and even families-- of birds possess certain color patterns which occur but slightly modified throughout their members. Other features come and go, but a certain color pattern may persist, to no ap- parent adaptive purpose. Such a feature surely does show community of descent as much as, and in certain cases, more than does position of nostril or proportions of man- dibles. Attention is called to the over-emphasis often given such "structural" characters as compared with color features, this undue em- phasis to be observed in parts of our mod- ern schemes of classification. In some cases it is shown that color features prove more dependable taxonomically than the structural characters currently recognized. But the author refrains in this paper from any spe- cific attempt at revising classification. Mr. Stone shows convincingly that an ex.- tremely promising line of investigation awaits the student who will make a special study of the colors and color-patterns of birds, with problems of genetic relationship. in view. The reviewer is not, however, quite ready to agree with Mr. Stone that there is more need of search in the direction of resemblances than in that of minute differences. Both are of great value, and equally important, though not necessarily of the same sort of mean- ing. The well-balanced student will neglect neither.--J. GRINNELL. THE EXPERIMENTAL METHOD OF TESTING THE EFFICIENCY oF WARNING AND CRYPTIC COLORATION IN PROTECTING ANIMALS FROM THEIR ENEMIES. By W. L. McATEE (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., LxIv, September 6, 1912, pp. 281-364). This work, reviewing critically the litera- ture of such experimentation, is indispensable to students of protective coloration. The main point emphasized, backed up by abun- dant evidence, is the danger of drawing con- clusions from experiments upon animals in captivity, unless the results are carefully compared with what is known about the hab- its of the same animals under natural con- ditions. The evidence seems conclusive that animals in captivity do not re-act to the stimu-