$8 THE CONDOR Vol. XVIII In their own neighborhood Mr. and Mrs. Baynes have had wonderful success in mak- ing the intimate l?ersonal acquaintance of many birds. A very full discussion of such l?roblems as those concerning methods of attracting birds, feeding birds in winter, devices which have been found useful, nest boxes, and the best shrubs and l?lants for attracting birds, is one of the chief contri- butions of the book. The much argued questions as to the re- lations of the farmer, 'the sl?ortsman, the foreigner, and the scientific collector to the l?reservation of birds are discussed in a re- freshingly iml?ersonal way. Mr. Baynes has avoided sweel?ing statements, and it must be admitted that his words have a corre- Sl?ondingiy convincing quality. V?rorthy of note is his attitude toward the l?redatory fur-bearing mammals and other bird enemies, so often condemned uncondi- tionally by bird enthusiasts. Evidence for as well as against them is carefully entered, and in concluding the chal?ter treating of destruction of birds by natur?l enemies, he says (l?. 37): "Yet it is a fact that all the storms that sweel? the. earth and all the nat- ural enemies, including savage l?eol?le, would seldom make any lasting iml?ression on the normal bird l?ol?ulation, if it were not for civilized man and his works." He makes clear the fact that the market demand for bird l?lumage or for the flesh of wfid birds has been of foremost iml?ortance as a factor in the decrease of many sl?ecies and the extermination of others. It is of decided interest that the author, although not a collector himself, has not allowed his devotion to the birds to blind him to the relation of the scientist to con- servation. On l?age 267 he says: "As for scientific collectors, the writer believes that they should be allowed to go about their work unhaml?ered by l?etty restrictions. Coml?ared with other gunners they shoot few birds and these are generally made good use of. The coml?laint that scientific men do not do their share in the work of wild life conservation, is generally unfair. It is usually the cry of some conservationist
who wishes he were scientific but is not,
who wishes to attract attention to his own work by belittling that of others, or who does not al?l?reciate the fact that the work he himself is doing is based largely on the work of the scientist." As a stel? toward the solution of the cat l?roblem, admittedly one of the most diffi- cult before bird lovers, a tax of one dollar on each male cat and five dollars on each female cat is recommended. The English Sl?arrow, or Eurol?ean Sl?ar-. row as Mr? Baynes calls it, al?l?arently .has no terrors for the author. The birds have been banished coml?letely from his home town, Meriden, New Haml?shire. Tral?l?ing is asserted to be the safest method of elim- ination, l?oisoning the most effective. As to the l?ossibility of eradicating the English S?arrow he says (l?l?. 245, 246): "Almost any town or city can be cleared of Eurol?ean Sl?arrows and kel?t clear of them, if just a few men of resource' and resolution will undertake the work. In almost any town there are a certain number of men who have made a great success in business, and I know and they know that ?f the sl?arrows had stood between any one of them and the success he has made, there would not be a single sl?arrow .in that town." Mr. Baynes gives aml?le sl?ace and ade- quate treatment to the economic argument for bird l?rotection, but wisely realizes that without f?eelings and l?assion as well as economics and intellect behind it the move- ment for conservation will not get as far as it ought to. The following is from 'his dis- ?ussio?' of the aesthetic and moral reasons for l?rotecting the birds (l?. 116): "No woods are dreary if the jays or crows are calling; no field but is full of joy if the bobolinks are slurinkling it with their song; and he is not quite human whose heart does not beat faster when at night and far above him he hears the cry of the wild gander as he leads his flying squadrons northward, homeward, through the l?athways of the skies." The ?ote of Mr. Bayne's argument, throughout, is an ol?timistic, a constructive one. His is not a code of ?o?'t's, but rather a coml?ellingly l?ersuasive l?rogram of ?0's. l?ealizing the fundamental iml?ortance in our coml?licated civilization of organization as an aid to individual effort he l?laces much eml?hasis ul?on the desirability of the formation of bird clubs. After reading the book one is not sur- l?rised to learn that a new edition has had to be l?rel?ared already.--v?r?LTEa P. TAYLOR. ' MINUTES OF COOPER CLUB MEETINGS NORT?RN DIVISION OCTO?F?R.--The regular monthly meeting of the Northern Division of the Cool?er Or- nithological Club was held at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, California, Thursday evening, October 28, 1915, at 8 P.M. In absence of both the President and Vice-President, Dr. H. C. Bryant assumed
