May, I9O6 t EDITORIALS 77 even so little beyond our narrow field, yet we cannot help remarking upon the pleasure to be derived from the study of mammals both in the field and museum. No specialist in any one group of animals can totally ignore every other group. The most eminent ornithologist will be the one who has a general knowledge of natural history to serve as a background for the study of his chosen specialty. A fair knowl- edge of insects, worms, molluscs, batrachians, reptiles and mammals will increase the ac- curacy of his study of the food-relations of birds, their distribution, and checks controll- ing their abundance. Mammals in particular need to be studied more in their bearing upon our avifaunas. Many birds-of-prey feed upon mammals, and many mammals feed upon birds. The chipmunk, as a nest-destroyer, has been accused of decimating the bird population of some parts of the country where a certain species al?ounds. In fact mammalogy and or- nithology can be very comfortably studied to- gether, with little interference, and with much added satisfaction. Heretofore students of mammals have had no text-book to refer to in identifying west coast species. This want is now to be met by our own fellow club-member, Mr. Frank Stephens, who is even better known as a mammalogist than as an ornithologist. As announced elsewhere in this issue, Mr. Steph- ens is the author of a forthcoming work on California mammals which will place this study on a basis for comparatively easy pur- suit. Let us hear more in regard to the rela- tions of the various members of the squirrel family to bird population. We wish to call the attention of every bird student to the communication in this issue from Mr. P. B. Peabody. When a prospective author resorts to a published appeal for infor- mation concerning the subject he is elaborat- ing, everyone becomes in a way responsible. It too often happens that a book, of a compre- hensive nature such as Mr. Peabody is so earn- estly striving to compile, might have been a little more up-to-date if only someone who had the needed information up his sleeve had ' 'loos- ened up." More than likely the individual in question remarks after the book appears in print, "Ugh! I could have told him better than that." Of course an author is responsible himself for the searching out of, and proper selection from, all published writ- ings. In order to make his knowledge avail- able to all other workers (in other words, therefore, to shift the responsibility), it is in- cumbent upon every serious bird student to put whatever observations of value he has made, upon permanent record. And to afford a medium for recording these things is the raiso?z d'etre of such a magazine as THE CONDOR.
BOOK NOTICES
WILD WINGS. Adventures of a Camera Hunter Among the Larger Wild Birds of North America on Sea and Land. By HER- BERT KNIGHTLY JOB. With an Introductory Letter by Theodore Roosevelt. Houghton Mifflin & Co., 8 vo., xxvItI 344 pages, I6O il- lustrations after photographs by the author. Price, 453 net. This is one of the most interesting por- trayals of wild life that we have had the good for{une to read. Mr. Job is an enthusiastic naturalist and a skilled photographer as well, and with this equipment he has brought a gen- erous slice of 'out-doors' between the two cov- ers of his book. The illustrations are all good, and many are remarkable, having required a vast deal of patience and perseverenee. Ob- viously it is impossible to give an adequate idea of a book of this character in a short notice, but the territory covered extends from Bird Rock in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to the Florida Keys, and some notion of the variety in subject matter may be gained from the chapter headings. Part I. Adventures in Florida Wilds, including: Cities of Brown Pelicans; Following Audubon among the Florida Keys; In the Cape Sable Wilderness; The Great Cuthbert Rookery; On Lone Bird Key. Part II. Other Wanderings South; Scavengers of the South; Virginia Bird-Homes of Beach and Marsh.; The Egret, in Nature and in Fashion. Part III. The Sea[ The Sea!--To Bird Rock in an Open Boat; Amid Northern Spruces and Sea-Girt Rocks; Off Chatham Bars. part IV. The Elusive Shore-Birds--The Shore Patrol; Northward with the Shore-Bird Host; Shore-Bird Loiterers. Part V. Raptores and Forest Fastnesses--The New Sport of "Hawk- ing"; Owl Secrets; Adventures with Great Horned Owls.--W. K. F. Two BIRD-LOVERS IN MEXtCO. BY C. WILLIAM BEEBE. Illustrated with photo- graphs from life taken by the author. Boston and New York. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. t2 mo., xIII+4O8 pages, IO6 half-tones. Price, $3 net. This attractive volume contains an account of a winter journey to Mexico, where three months were spent by Mr. and Mrs. Beebe, on what was virtually a camping trip. "We reached Vera Cruz on New Year's from which city we made three camping trips in the vicin- ity of the volcano of Colima, in the States of Jalisco and Colima; and returning via Vera Cruz, we left that port enroute for New York at Easter. "The entire trip was so novel, so delightful, so absolutely devoid of unpleasant features, and on the whole so inexpensive, that it seemed to me that the knowledge of such an outing would tempt many lovers of Nature to this neighboring Republic. As an aid to such, Mrs. Beebe has added a chapter on 'How we did it.'" The book is well calculated to tempt one to follow their example. It is written in a fam- iliar, interesting style and contains many notes not only on birds but also on all the animals
