Book News and Reviews 107 group of birds, but, to be sure, this would have been a rude shock to the systematists who only look for differences and name them all ! ' Unpublished Letters of Audubon and Baird, ' by R. Deane, are pleasant read- ing, being filled with ornithological topics of the day. Incidentally, the clumsiness of the duodecimal system is well illustrated. An important paper by F. W. Carpen- ter on ' An Astronomical Determination of the Heights of Birds during Nocturnal Migration,' shows that these heights are not as great as was estimated by earlier observers. He gives the credit of modern experiments to Prof. J. Stebbins, of the University of Illinois. A new form of Petrel (Oceanodroma monorhis chapmani) from California, is de- scribed by Von Berlepsch, while J. Grinnell offsets this addition by discrediting the validity of the San Francisco Titmouse. A bird new to the North American Check-List, the Gray-breasted Martin ( Progne chalybea) is added by W. De W. Miller, and other records of value may be found among the general notes. — J. D., Jr. Journal of the Maine Ornithological Society. — In the December, 1905, number the leading articles are 'The Ducks of Merrymeeting Bay,' by F. T. Noble, and 'Contributions to the Life History of the Myrtle Warbler,' by O. W. Knight. The March, 1906, number contains the proceed- ings of the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Society, which indicate the prosperous and active condition of the organization. Other articles are an account of the 'Nashville Warbler in Maine,' by O. W. Knight, and a series of Christmas 'Bird Census Reports.' The usual valuable local notes complete the number. The Wilson Bulletin. — The first num- ber of Vol. XVIII contains an annotated list of the birds of Scott County, Iowa, by B. H. Wilson ; 'August at Lake Tahoe and a Hammock List of Sparks Nevada,' by Esther Craigmile, and ' November Aspects in Spokane County, Washington ' by W. L. Dawson. P. A. Taverner treats at length of the status of the Yellow-breasted Chat as a Michigan bird, and gives an in- teresting account of a young Flicker tagged with an aluminum band on the tarsus, at Keota, Iowa, in May, 1905, which was shot at Sabine Parish, Louisiana, on Christmas day. Mr. Taverner has had many other young birds tagged in the same way and looks with interest for information as to their capture. — W. S. In the second number of The Ontario Natural Science Bulletin (1906) is an article by Dr. J. Dwight, Jr., on the ' Use and Abuse of the Subspecies,' written chiefly for those not already familiar with the sub- species problem. The differences between species and subspecies, the origin of sub- species and the naming of them are the questions discussed. Dr. Dwight believes that we should have an exact and consistent vernacular as well as technical nomenclature for subspecies. For instance, the three geographical forms of Merula migratoria, migratoria, pro- pitKjiia and achrustera, should be known respectively as the Northern American Robin, the Western American Robin and the Southern American Robin, and the name American Robin, now used exclusively for the northern form, should be applied to the species as a whole. This is a matter which should be given consideration by the revisers of the A. O. U. Check-list. In concluding, Dr. Dwight states "there are * two abuses of the trinomial that greatly detract from its value: one is naming at sight every variation, and the other is, naming races the variations within which are considerably overlapped by adja- cent races already described. As an ex- ample of the first-mentioned abuse, we have some of the pallid or desert races that bleach in the sun for a season, although the new plumage is as dark as that of birds of humid areas. " As an example of the second abuse, the finely divided eastern races of the Downy Woodpecker and the Maryland Yellow- throat are cited, and Dr. Dwight argues that naming intermediate races simply results in a " horde of new intermediates." W. DeW. M.
