NATURE-STUDY AND SCIEXCE NOTES 123 



author's earlier books, birds are prominent in this chronicle of a year. The 

 superb illustrations, most of them bv Walter King Stone, certainlv help in- 

 spire enthusiasm in the reader. 



The wide range ot topics which would naturally enter into such a book 

 make it impossible to describe adequately its contents in a brief review. One 

 who will sit down to recall the natural objects which he has seen in a year 

 will get some idea of the topics which the author had available for use in this 

 book. An index makes reference possible. 



The book will appeal chiefly to those who buy nature books for their literary 

 and artistic charm. It is not indispensable to those who must occasionally 

 buy books as guides to studies ot nature. 



First Book of Birds and True Bird Stories. By Olive Th orne 

 Miller. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin. New school editions, 60 cts. each. 



It is proper that these well-known books intended for children should be 

 issued in school editions. The author's point of view is true to nature-study 

 ideals, for she says: "It has seemed to me that what is needed at first is not 

 the science of ornithology, — however diluted, — but some account of the life 

 and habits, to arouse svmpathy and interest in the living bird, neither as a tar- 

 get nor as a producer of eggs, but as a fellow-creature whose acquaintance it 

 would be pleasant to make." With this purpose in mind the author has 

 written these introductions to bird studv. 



NATURE-STUDY AND SCIENCE NOTES 



Fur Seals. The destruction of the Pribilof Islands fur seals by pelagic 

 sealing still continues. The herd which, according to the surveys made in 

 1874 by direction of the Congress, numbered 4,700,000, and which, accord- 

 ing to the survey of both American and Canadian Commissioners in 1 891, 

 amounting to 1,000,000, has now been reduced to about 180,000. This 

 result has been brought about by Canadian and some other sealing vessels kill- 

 ing the female seals while in the water during their annual pilgrimage to and 

 from the South, or in search of food. As a rule the female seal when killed 

 is pregnant, and also has an unweaned pup on land, so that for each skin 

 taken by pelagic sealing, as a rule, three lives are destroved — the mother, the 

 unborn offspring, and the nursing pup, which is left to starve to death. No 

 damage whatever is done to the herd by the carefully regulated killing on 

 land; the custom of pelagic sealing in solely responsible for all the present 

 evil, and is alike indefensible from the economic standpoint and from the stand- 

 point of humanitv. 



