VOL. III. | Recent Literature. 67 
gions possessing comparatively few peculiar types, simply because 
a water separation happens to exist in the present geologic period; 
nor is it evident why one of the resulting feeble divisions should be 
granted higher rank than a region of much less geographic extent 
comprising several times as many types.’’ CA Re 
Wood Notes Wild. Notations of Bird Music, by SIMEON PEASE 
CHENEY. Collected and arranged with appendix, notes, biblio- 
graphy, and general index, by JoHN VANCE CHENEY. It has been 
the fashion of scientific ornithologists to pass over the songs of birds 
as something unworthy of their serious attention, contenting them- 
selves with occasional vague phrases descriptive of bird notes intro- 
duced in their lighter writings. The cause of this is not that bird 
songs are of no scientific importance, but that it is almost impossible 
to record them in a manner sufficiently accurate to reduce their 
study to ascience. There is no reason why the phonograph might 
not be brought into use for this purpose; but in the absence of any 
such investigations as this, the work of Mr. Cheney cannot fail to 
prove a great benefit to this much neglected corner of science. It 
remains for future investigators to verify the accuracy of his musical 
notations; but in view of the fact that he was primarily a musician, 
and at the same time an accurate and painstaking observer and an 
enthusiastic admirer of birds, there is every probability that his in- 
terpretations are in the main correct. 
As a foundation for the future study of bird notes, the’ value of 
this work cannot be overestimated. The typical songs and many of 
the variations and call notes of all the more common Eastern birds 
are recorded in musical scale with text descriptions and amplifica- 
tions. 
Much of this music has been published in the magazines, but Mr. 
John Vance Cheney has done more than make a collection of his 
father’s work in the present work. Over half the book is devoted 
to an appendix, in which are incorporated all the most important 
descriptions and notations of bird music which have been published 
by other writers, with much other matter bearing more or less directly 
on the question under consideration. A very full bibliography of the 
subject closes the work. Coa Ki 
The American Naturalist. October, 1891.—Notes on the Hearts 
of Certain Mammals: By Ida H. Hyde. Brief notes on points of 
