78 THIi? CONDOR I VOL. VIII which the enthusiastic naturalists encountered in their wanderings. Their trip covered a wide range of country with great diversity of climatic conditions. They were thus provided with a considerable variety of experiences which their freedom from the cares of 'col- lecting' enabled them to appreciate to the ful- lest extent. The numerous illustrations, from photo- graphs, of both animals and scenery greatly add to the attractiveness and value of the book, which is, in the best sense, a natural history narrative.--W. K. F. STONE ANDRItOADS '(ON A COLLECTION OF BIRDS AND MAMMALS ?ROM THE COLORADO DELTA, LOWER CALIFORNIA. TM Early in i9o5 Mr. S. N. Rhoads made a trip thru the northeastern portion of Lower Califor- nia in quest of specimens for the Philadel- phia Academy. These are reported upon by Mr. Witmet Stone in the present paper, the field notes being quoted from Rhoads. 258 birds were secured, of 49 species. Among these, the record of 5 specimens taken of Passerculus roslralus rectifies the error of W. W. Price who recorded the bird found at the mouth of the Colorado as gullatus. (Bull. Cooper Orn. Club I, Sept. I899, page 92.) Mr. Stone incidentally records another speci- men of Dryobales scalaris lucasanus from California (exact locality apparently unknown), but concludes from the four skins taken in northern Lower California that lucasanus is not deserving of full specific rank, as urged by Brewster. Besides the 49 species represented by speci- mens, a list of 58 additionat species is appended as seen by Rhoads. Many of these are very doubtful, as often confessed by the use of the question mark. The catbird, western winter wren and broad-winged hawk seem to be par- ticularly dubious cases. Thus about Io7 species were noted by Rhoads where Price (in the paper cited a few lines above) recorded 91 for the same locality at about the the same season. The region will, however, bear a good deal more thoro attention than has yet been given it.--J. G. COMMUNICATION A New Bird Book Editor THE CONDOR' Prof. Lynds Jones having, in the latest issue of the Wilson Bulletin, spoken very kindly of my forth-coming work on the "Nesting Ways
From the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural
Sciences of Philadelphia, September, x9os. Issued Dec. 6, ?9o5. Pages 676-69 o. Birds, pages 68x-69o. of North American Birds" to the equal surprise and gratification of the compiler of the work,. it becomes necessary to say somewhat in pub- lic, at once, concerning what has hitherto been exploited only in private. From the chronicl- ing of personal records covering one hundred and ninety-five species and sub-species of birds, this work has grown, thru painstaking and minute elaboration and abridgement from "data" books, bulletins and magazine files, and the hearty co-operation of ornithologists, pro- fessional and amateur, until records that have been assorted, adapted or digested into manu- script now cover all but one hundred and two species and subspecies of the birds occurring north of the Rio Grande River (including, however, the ornis of the California coast islands; and that portion of the birds of the Greater Antilles that have a place on the A. O. U. List).- The nomenclature will be brought up to the date of going to press, Geographic races recognized as subspecifically distinct by competent ornithologists will be appendixed in the above work, even tho not recognized by the A. O. U. Committee on Classification. The scope of the work is the whole field of nesting habits, save for considerations of shapes, colors, sizes and textures of eggs; this portion of the field being already fairly well covered. Everything available in print has now been drawn upon except the great files of bulletins and proceedings which are to be found only in the larger city libraries; and not, by any means, in even all of these. The work now being doue is in this direction, and it is a work both laborious and costly. In the preparation of large masses of mate- rial, never as yet adequately found in print, the Preparator of the proposed book has enjoyed the generous help of just forty bird students and field workers. Of these, twenty-five are men of national reputation in this domain. When this work is ready for the press, the student who shall look to it for information concerning times, places, number of eggs, nesting conditions and distinctive habits of birds during the nesting season may confidently look to find, in "Nesting Ways," the vital facts, so far as known, for all North American birds. Here, in reasonably brief space, he will readily find thru careful lists and indexes that which would cost him no less than two hundred dol- lar's, if bought in original form, and which would involve, even then, literally months of perplexing and wearisome research. The illus- trations will be full, and wholly original. A large number of the subjects portrayed have never before been photographed; and there will be found in this work not a few facts that are absolutely new to science. The book in question, incubating in the Preparator's mind for many years, has not been
