Page:Condor4(6).djvu/23

 November, i9o2. THE CONDOR i47 bition. Beings who love and mate, who build homes with infinite labor and pains, with mar- velous wisdom and skill, these are hunted, robbed and killed, without any consideration of their rights. If these beings, wearing feathers, were any- thing but innocent, beautiful, useful, wonder- fully gifted with intelligence and the power of flight; if they were injurious, enemies and not friends of that conceited being, man, he might be justified perhaps in taking no account of their rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." And it would seem that the representative ornithologist ought to have some regard for their rights, and a degree of sympathy with birds as living beings. But to paraphrase a very bad popular saying concerning Indians, they seem to consider that the only ood bird is a dead bird. In the September-October number of the COrn)OR, there is an interesting and excellent- ly written article on the rufous-crowned spar row, the description of a social colony on a little hillside opposite a schoolhouse, where the birds obtained a part of their living no doubt from the scraps remaining of the childrens' lunches. If the teacher was up to date she taught the children to be lovers and protectors of these "feathered friends." But the ornith- ologist went across the road, and "eighteen specimens were taken within an area of two or three acres." The writers handle their English deftly. They never say killed, slaughtered or murdered but "taken" or some such gentle word. For example, on a succeeding visit to the same field, after finding a nest, the mother bird ap- peared, "bu. was extremely wary. She flew past the hush. and alighted but would not go to the nest. Then she flew up the hill again when I collected her." Now I should like to say seriously, why one dozen birds should not have been sufficient, leaving six at least to enjoy life; also why ehe bright little mother should have been "collect- ed" merely for dissection to show that her nest of eggs was complete. And the writer is "looking forward to furth- er iuvestigation of this sage brush home with renewed interest.  ' Among general news notes, we observed that Messrs.- and- have returned from an extended trip with "a host of interesting and valuable material"--a soft name for dead birds. In pleasing contrast, t me at least, with these polite allusions to destructive bird study, is the beautiful article of a lady in Berkeley, on the Black-headed Grosbeak. Here is the sympathetic study of a living sentiment being with a voice of harmony: a life and a vice to be loved and described without the ' 'collection" of its owner. I believe in the motto of Bird-Lore, albeit the editor was once a collector himself: ".4 bird in lhe bush is worlh lwo in the hand." I hope no one will be offended by my plain speaking. It seems to me that the time has come to emphasize more the study of the living and less the study of the dead. Young people are taking notes of us, and if very many of them get the impression that ornithology means merely the collection of eggs, nests and skins, it will be a sorry time for the birds. The better trend of thought I believe, is to- ward a kind regard for, and sympathetic ilter- est in the native citizens of the earth and air. Yours truly, CrA RRETT NEYVKIRK. Pasadena. PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED. BREWSTER ON LOWER C,LIIORNI& BIRDS -- This paper of nearly 250 pages is much more than the unpretentious title would indicate. We are accustomed to see mere nominal lists of species bearing such titles as that of Mr. Brew- ster's paper. But his is something out of the ordinary. The reader fails to properly realize its scope until he has perused its many pages and studied some one of the monographs which the accounts of several species actually are. Mr. Brewster's paper is in reality a compen- dium of all that is known of the 255 species found in the region dealt with. The paper is based primarily on the collec- tions made by Mr. M. Abbott Frazar who spent nine months in Lower California in I887 in Mr. Brewster's interests. The collection numbered 4,40o birds which have already afforded several novelties as well as series of certain species previously known only from one or tw speci- mens. Mr. Frazar also kept field-notes to some extent, and these, with extended critical re- marks on specimens, constitute the new mater- ial offered in the present paper. Four new forms are described as new, namely, 7'o/anus melanoleucus frazari, .V[eascops a:anlusi, Bubo virginJanus elachistus and Tachycinela lhalassina brachyplera. These are all confined so far as known to southern Lower California. Thirty-six species are newly accredited to the region. A useful feature of the paper is a carefully compiled Bibliography, and synonymies are en- tered complete for each of the birds peculiar to --Birds oi the Cape Rgion of,ower Calitbrnia. By William Brewster. --Bull. Mu Co rip. Zool. XVI. teml:er 19o2, pp 1--42 , with one map.