Oceanic Birds of South America

Abstract

A NEW edition of this remarkable work, first published in 1936, will be welcomed by'bird-lovers not only in America but also in Great Britain. The birds described, although primarily sea birds of South America, are, many of them, great wanderers, and are found either habitually, or from time to tune, in North Atlantic waters. For example, consider Wilson's petrel. These petrels, writes the author, in summer are to be seen in every bay and cove of Maine and Nova Scotia, although they are migrants from the other end of the world, whereas Leach's petrels, which nest on the shores of Maine and Nova Scotia, are rarely seen on the sea. The calling of Leach's petrels during the night in their burrows, and also in the air above them, is so strange and mysterious that “the mind may readily picture a most animated gathering of the black elves of old, hurrying to and fro for the accomplishment of some important mission, ere dreaded Day begins".

Oceanic Birds of South America

A Study of Species of the Related Coasts and Seas, Including the American Quadrant of Antarctica based upon the Brewster-unford Collection in the American Museum of Natural History. By Robert Cushman Murphy. Vol. I. Pp. xxii + 640 + 44 plates. Vol. 2. Pp. vii + 641–1245 + 44 plates. (New York: The Macmillan Company and the American Museum of Natural History. London: Macmillan and Co., 1948.) £4 7s. 6d. net.