1942 .] Recent Ornithological Publications. 45 1

well as to those who have), and, having made the introduc- tion, to persuade them to join the army of bird-watchers who have made our knowledge of British birds greater than that of the bird-life of any other country. In Chapter I., " Introducing the Bird-watcher to the Bird ", anatomy is dealt with, then we have chapters on the " Tools of Bird- watching " (this including the use of libraries, how to take notes, the glasses required, etc.), Migration, the Number of Birds, Territory, Courtship and the Breeding Season, and a final chapter " What you can do ". In this chapter trapping and ringing stations (dealt with in detail in Chapter IV.) are again mentioned ; preparation of bird sanctuaries (which should be read carefully by all interested in bird preservation) and other items such as song charts and song periods, tally lists for own area, and the joining of some natural history society are also dealt with. This latter item is of great importance for the beginner, as it brings him into touch with others interested in ornithology, and he can attend the meetings and go out on the field days, where he will quickly learn a lot.

Space will not allow one to go into the many other points of interest in the book. It is an excellent little book and should be in the hands of all field workers. They will find much of interest in it, in addition to the points mentioned in this review. Museum workers might do worse than peruse the pages themselves as well.

The book The author is to be congratulated on his effort. iti sure to prove a great success. G. C. L.

Wetmme on the Birds of North Carolina. [Notes on the Birds of North Carolina. By Alexander Wetmore.

Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. vol. xc. pp. 483-530 (1941).]

The State of North Carolina, which extends from the Atlantic to the crests of the Alleghany Mountains, which here reach an elevation of about 5000 feet, offers a very variable ecological terrain for bird-life. Along the coast are a series of vast swamps and marshes where a number of peculiar forms occur, and there are also some islands off the coast, especially Smith Island, to which Dr. Wetmore suggests more careful investigation might be given.

452 Recent Ornithological Publications. [Ibis,

In 1939 a small party was sent out from the National Museum to make field investigations, and this paper contains the results obtained both in the matter of field notes and taxonomic discussions on many points.

Of recent years many of the well-known birds of the eastern States have been divided into a northern and southern race, and it is often in North Carolina that these meet, often creating interesting problems of intergradation, as in the case of the Flickers, Colaptes uuratus, where the southern typical race is found in the eastern part of the State and the northern one in the western area, though intermediates are not infre- quent. In the case of another Woodpecker, Dryobates borealia, Dr. Wetmorc has found it necessary to fix the type locality as &It. Pleasant in South Carolina, as that given by Vieillot -" Dans le iiord des &,ats-Unis "-is obviously incorrect, and he also finds it necessary to describe the form found in Central and Southern Florida as distinct under the name Dryobates bormlis hylonomus. w. L. S.

Wolfson on Regulation of the Sexual Cycle, in Birds. [Light versus Activity in tha Regulation of the Sexual Cycles of

Birds: the Role of the Hypothalamus. By Albert Wolfson. 'The Condor ', vol. xliii. pp. 135-136 (1941).]

In this paper the author begins with a useful critical review of work on the above subject and follows this with a suggestion as to how the conflicting results obtained may perhaps be reconciled. Rowan's well-known pionecr studies on the influence of artificially increased day-length in stimulating out of season the development of the gonads of birds has been followed by researches on similar or related lines by several other workers, but the subject has from the first given rise to controversy. Rowan, it may be recalled, concluded that the effect was produced not through a direct influence of light on any part of the body, but indirectly through the physiological effects of increased activity. Other experimenters-working, admittedly, on other species-have not corroborated this view, and the evidence which Rowan (1938) believed he had ,obtained in support of it from a study of the gonads of Star- lings from roosts in London and in the country is shown by the work of Bullough and Carrick (1939) to have another