Book News and Reviews 3i son, and a ' Contribution to the Ornithol- ogy of South Carolina,' by A. T. Wayne. The last article is particularly rich in care- ful observations on rare species, and infor- mation regarding the Seaside Sparrows, the Marsh Wrens and others. P. T. Coolidge's 4 Notes on the Screech Owl ' are an interest- ing contribution to the life-history of the bird, while J. C. Wood tells of 'Autumn Warbler Hunting' in Michigan and B. S. Bowdish of ' Some Breeding Warblers of Demarest, N. J.' The Warblers seem to have been particularly unfortunate in their housekeeping, judging by the story of mis- haps and desertions. From a human point of view, the nesting of a Black-throated Green Warbler in a skunk cabbage would seem to be unfortunate as well as most un- usual. Mr. Sage's report of the twenty-third annual meeting of the A. O. U. shows the society to be flourishing, and we note that 'The Auk ' has come out in new type. An item by Mr. Meeker on the inter- breeding of the Golden-winged and Blue- winged Warbler should stimulate further field observations, from which more may be learned regarding the vexed questions of hybridization than from pages of theorizing over dry skins. — J. D., Jr. The Condor. — The leading article in the November number of 'The Condor' con- tains an interesting account by Mr. Robert Ridgway of 'A Winter with the Birds in Costa Rica.' During a stay of nearly six months he traversed the country from ocean to ocean and from the lowlands to the sum- mit of Irazu, 11,500 feet above sea-level. The principal places visited, the character- istic birds, and the difficulties of traveling and collecting inthe tropics are all described as fully as the limits of the article permit. Mr. Ridgway declares that one of the strongest impressions of the trip was a reali- zation of the fragmentary character of our present knowledge of tropical bird-life. Notwithstanding the fact that the birds of Costa Rica have been studied more than those of any other region of Centra! or South America, less than one-third of the country has thus far been visited by naturalists and the possibilities of thorough exploration of the tropics still offer unusual opportunities to enthusiastic young ornithologists. Among the articles devoted to Pacific Coast birds should be mentioned the con- tinuation of Finley's illustrated paper, 'Among the Sea Birds off the Oregon Coast,' and also descriptions of a new Nighthawk and Towhee. The Pacific Nighthawk {Chordeiles virginanus hesperis) is de- scribed by Grinnell from a specimen col- lected at Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains, Cal., and the Rocky Mountain Towhee (Pipilo maculatus montanus) is by Swarth from two types from the Huachuca mountains, Arizona. From an examina- tion of a series of about 150 specimens of Towhees from various points in California, Arizona and New Mexico, Mr. Swarth concludes that two of the forms recently de- scribed, Pipilo maculatus atratus and P. m. falcifer, are not sufficiently distinct from P. in. megalonyx to warrant rec- ognition by name. An interesting account of ' The American Crossbill in Montana ' is given by Silloway , who collected a nest containing four eggs on July 27, 1905, in the Flathead forests. He also records the occurrence of the White-winged Crossbill in summer in the same region. Vrooman describes the ' Dis- covery of a Second Egg of the Black Swift,' collected with the old bird on a cliff near Santa Cruz, California, on July 9, 1905, and Taylor describes a nest and six eggs of the Vaux Swift, collected by Franklin J. Smith, in Humboldt county, California, in a hollow stub not more than two feet from the ground. With the present number, which concludes the seventh volume, Walter K. Fisher re- tires from the editorship of ' The Condor,' after a service of three years and an associa- tion with the editorial staff since 1901. Under his energetic and successful manage- ment each volume has shown a distinct advance in the progress of the journal, a record which we trust will be maintained by his successor, Joseph Grinnell. — T. S. P. The Wilson Bulletin.— The fourth number of this quarterly, concluding its seventeenth volume, contains a sketch of the New Jersey Pine Barrens and their bird- life, by Chreswell J Hunt; 'Additions and
