Recent Literature

Vol.57] RecentLiterature 579 1940 a RECENT LITERATURE Todd's 'Birds of Western Pennsylvania.'--Thissumptuous volumO represents the fruitionof a half a centuryof field observationon the author'spart as well as a thoroughacquaintance with other availablesources of informationconcern- ing the bird life of the westernmountainous half of Pennsylvania,an areawhich fifty yearsago was regarded as "a virtualterra incognita, ornithologically speaking, whereasit is now better known than any area of similar size in the eastern UnitedStates." In additionto his longfamiliarity with the birdsof thisregion, the authorbrings to histask a wideacquaintance with the birdsof otherportions of easternNorth Americaand elsewhere,so that in the light of this broadknowl- edge,he is ableto speakwith unusualbreadth of viewand long perspective. The chiefpurpose of the bookis to extendour knowledgeof the detaileddis- tribution of birds in eastern North America and to provide descriptive accounts of the birdsof westernPennsylvania in the hopeof stimulatinga generalinterest in localornithology. The treatmentis thusadmittedly from the 'popular'view- point. The introductorychapters provide brief descriptions of the topography andclimate, the generalaspects of the presentbird life, andespecially a valuable discussionof the distribution of breeding speciesand their relation to those factors. The author concludesthat the old and long-acceptedlife-zone concept asformulated by Merriamand J. A. Allenis i•xadequateto express the facts of distribution.Rather there are representedtwo main contrastingcategories of birds:those of chieflyaustral distribution and thoseof moreboreal affinities; whilein their actualand potentialdistribution, each species is a law unto itself and each is controlledin its northwardor southwardrange by its specialrequire- ments,so that it is notpossible to definelife zonesby meansof groupsof birds boundtogether by commonneeds of climateor othercircumstances. With this conclusion,the revieweris quite in agreement,and longago expressed the same ideain regardto thedistribution of mammals in NewEngland. Of specialvalue is thehistorical account of theregion and its birdlife for evenfifty years ago there werestill areasin westernPennsylvania that were under primeval evergreen forest andsupported a number ofmore northern species ofplants and animals; but with theintensive lumbering operations already then under way, these have now been largelydestroyed, while disastrous forest fires have added to theruin, with the resultthat therehas been a retreatof the morenorthern types and an advance of th• moresouthern, with many and wide changes in habitatsand consequently in distribution. The bodyof thebook takes up eachspecies known from the area, giving its fieldcharacters, range, migration, and habits,written especially from the point of viewof westernPennsylvania, while for the rarerspecies, the detailedrecords andreferences are given. The paragraphson habitsare well written and afford interestingaccounts of the characteristic activities of thevarious species, without pretendingto be detailed life histories.Those on migrationbring together a multitudeof scatterednotes gathered from many sourceswhile the noteson distributionand changes in populationsare timelyand particularly interesting. Onemight have wished, however, for more definite details in manycases, where estimatesof numbersor countsof individualswould provide a firmerbasis for Todd,W. E. Clyde.Birds / of WesternPennsylvania / 4to, xv 4- 7•o pp., •25pls., map, 194o;University of PittsburghPress, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. $5.oo 580 RecentLiterature I' Auk L Oct. future comparisonsthan suchvague terms as "rare" or "not uncommon."For all that,the bookprovides a vastamount of interestingdetail and gives a picture of the changesand presentcondition of bird life in the area coveredthat is of unusualvalue. The book,though of a largersize than convenientfor a manual, is well gottenup, the doublecolumns of print make readingof a wide page easier,the dull paperand the styleof typeare well chosen.There is a gazetteer of namesand a carefullyprepared bibliography as well as an index to bird names. In additionto an excellenttopographic map of westernPennsylvania and a plate in black and white showingthe appearanceof certain raptorial birds, the work is embellishedwith twenty-twocolored plates illustrating 118 speciesfrom draw- ings by Dr. GeorgeMiksch Sutton. Many of these,notably thoseof owls,are extremelygood. The method of reproductionby aquatonegives a soft artistic effect, but often the figures,as a result, lose in sharpness,while others with con- siderablereduction lose most of their diagnosticvalue, as in the caseof the small flycatchersand vireosin which the true valuesof the greensand shadesof olive are quite lost. It would have been better in such casesto have had a few figures of natural size rather than many of miniature proportions,especially where the bettersknownspecies are familiar from other figures. All in all, the volume is an outstandingaddition to the variousState bird booksnow available.--G. M. Gabrielson and Jewett's 'Birds of Oregon' at last provides that State with an adequate summary of its varied bird life to fill in the gap between the State ornithologiesof Washington and California. It forms the secondof the Oregon State Monographssponsored by the OregonState Collegefor the purposeof arous- ing a wider interest in the study and preservationof the wildlife of the region. In this, no better choice of authors could have been made, for both have spent many yearsin private and orificialcapacities investigating the birds of Oregonand havehad the advantageof accessto the vastamount of informationgathered by the U.S. BiologicalSurvey, the StateGame Commission and manyother sources. The book• has beenwritten entirely by the seniorauthor, but a large part of the task of checkingrecords and literaturehas been assumed,they tell us, by the junior author. The openingpages provide a check-listof the birdsof Oregon,with pageref- erencesto the formal accountsin the bodyof the book,followed by a chapterin- tendedfor the generalreader, on the varied activitiesof birds. The chapteron topographyand life zonesis especiallyinteresting, for no lessthan five life zonesare represented,from the Upper Sonoranof the lower partsof the State,to the Arctic-Alpine,on someof the highermountain-tops. Three speciesof birds,the Hepburn'sand Gray-crownedRosy Finches and the AmericanPipit, characterize theArctic-Alpine islands, but thesupposed presence of theWhite-tailed Ptarmigan within the State is shownto be with little doubt erroneous. The CoastRange and the CascadeRange cut the State into sectionsrunning north and south, at the sametime controllingclimatic features,from the heavy rainfall of the coastto the arid regionsof the easternpart of the State. An interestingchapter is that reviewingthe historyof Oregonornithology from the arrival of Lewis and Clark in 1805 down to the present time. The number of important workson this subject,however, is regardedby the authorsas few. The fragmentary notes of earlier explorers and travellers do not indicate, as • Gabrielson, Ira N., and Jewett, Stanley G. Birds of Oregon. 8vo, xxx -{- 650 pp., • col. and 97 half-tone pls., 2o text-figs., map, •94o; Oregon State College, Corvallis, Oregon. $4.25. Vol.x940•7'] •1 RecentLiterature 581 oftensupposed, that gamebirds were abundant in thosedays. Indeed, Townsend relates,that in September1834, when he and Thomas Nuttall crossedthe Blue Mountains,he wasonce forced to makea mealof rosebudsand on oneoccasion, uponreturning to camp,was dismayed to findNuttall and Captain Thing picking thelast bones of an owlwhich he hadshot that morning, intending to preserve it as a specimenlFrom Oregon, thirty-five species or raceshave been described as new and are separatelylisted with their type localities. The bodyof the bookconsists of the 'AnnotatedList' in whichare givenfor eachbird a brief description,and a statementof its generaldistribution and occurrencein Oregon,followed by a shortaccount of its history,hatmrs, food and more obvioushabits. One might havewished that this last item couldhave been amplified.An hypotheticallist of thirty-threespecies, a full and well-prepared bibliographyand an indexof Englishnames, conclude the volume. The manyex- cellentillustrations are fromphotographs of Oregonbirds, mostly by the Finleys, Bohlman,Alex Walkerand someothers, with a coloredfrontispiece by Murie, that setsthe toneof the book. Very wiselythe publishershave made the volume of regularoctavo size, rather than of extra height,but it wasa pity that they found it necessaryto use the heavy,shiny paper for the sakeof the half-tones. As a goodsummary of the bird life of Oregonthis volumeshould prove of great value in stimulatingan interestin the birds of the State as well as providing much information.--G. M. Peters's'Check-list oœBirds of the World,' ¾ol. 4, now issued,is uniform with the previousthree volumesand extendsthe review of the generaand speciesof Recent birds to include the orders Cuculiformes(plantain-eaters and cuckoos), Strigiformes(owls), Caprimulgiformes (oilbirds and goatsuckers),and Apodiformes (swifts). As before, are included the original referencesto all generic,specific and subspecificnames, with for the first a statementof the genotype,the method, of its determination,and synonyms;furthermore, references to important papers on each group are given, while for every speciesand subspeciesthere is a careful statementof the range

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