LETTERS ON THE ORNITHOLOGY OF BUENOS AYRES
by W. H. Hudson, ed-ited by D. R. Dewar with a foreword byHerbert F. West '22. Cornell UniversityPress, 1951, pp. 93, $2.75.
This little book is inscribed "to lovers of W. H. Hudson everywhere." The twelve letters, written in 1869 and 1870, were originally published in the Proceedings of the ZoologicalSociety of London and comprise the first published work of William Henry Hudson. Although not unknown to the professional ornithologist, they are probably new to most admirers of Hudson's writings, and will thus be welcomed, since they throw light on his early life and character. The original spelling and punctuation are reproduced and nomenclatural corrections, as published in the Proceedings, are given in numerous footnotes. However, since many of the birds mentioned are listed by latin name only, the reader may sometimes have difficulty in forming a visual image of the bird in question.
For instance, in the interesting third letter where Hudson takes issue with Charles Darwin, concerning the habits of a certain woodpecker, most readers will probably be unaware that the bird being discussed is generically related to the common Flicker (Colaptes) of North America. To many bird lovers in this country, an awareness of this fact might help to clarify the issue, since the habits of our flicker seem not unlike those of the South American bird. Hudson's contention that this woodpecker exhibits no adaptive modification in response to its peculiar mode of life, and was therefore an unfortunate choice of Darwin's in support of his theory of Natural Selection, is not upheld by recent research. In his study of the adaptive modifications in the woodpeckers, Burt (Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool., 32, 455-524, 1930) has shown that the members of the genus Colaptes are indeed modified in structure in response to their mode of life.
If a second edition o£ the book is contemplated, some footnotes of this kind written by an ornithologist familiar with the South American avifauna, might add to the reader's enjoyment of these interesting letters.
