SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



Ui 



types of dual monarchies." Russia might 

 have been presented as having a place apart 

 in European politics, but the book was full. 

 The work has been prepared in the belief 

 that " our own institutions can be understood 

 and appreciated only by those who know 

 other systems of government as well and the 

 main facts of general institutional history." 

 The accounts of the particular systems of 

 government are followed by short chapters 

 on the Nature and Forms of Government; 

 Law, its Nature and Development; the 

 functions and the objects of government; 

 and summaries, in which the conclusion is 

 expressed that law grows with the growth 

 of the community, can not leap too far ahead 

 of it, and must not lag behind it ; and that 

 " the method of political development is con- 

 servative adaptation, shaping old habits into 

 new ones, modifying old means to accomplish 

 new ends." 



Mr. H. E. Parhhurst has made in his How 

 to Name the Birds* a book on a different 

 plan from the other books about birds that are 

 now appearing so abundantly — not to rival 

 them, but to serve as an introduction to their 

 more genera! use. It is intended to aid the 

 field ornithologist in determining an unknown 

 species, by calling his attention to their more 

 obvious features and those more distinguish- 

 able from a distance than those which ob- 

 servers using the ordinary bird books have 

 to depend on as a means of recognition. 

 Color is chiefly relied upon, and, as a further 

 means of finding the birds, they are grouped 

 by the seasons, when they may be seen in a 

 given locality — the summer, winter, migrant, 

 and permanent birds, and birds of prey. 

 The first four groups are subgrouped accord- 

 ing to color, and the larger color groups are 

 further subdivided. Other devices and signs 

 are contrived, so that a complete description 

 of the bird, as it will appear to the amateur 

 watching it from a little way off, is given in 

 three or four lines. To this a brief comment 

 is added regarding the nesting and habits of 

 the bird. These descriptions are preceded by 



* How to Name the Birds. A Pocket Guide 

 to the Land Birds and to the Principal Water 

 Fowl normally found in the New England States, 

 New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, for 

 the Use of Field Ornithologists. By II. E. Park- 

 hurst. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 

 115. Price, $1. 



an analytical key similar to the botanical keys; 

 and the study is aided by giving three pages 

 of diagrams illustrating the distinctive areas of 

 the bird's body, to which reference is made 

 in describing the colors, stripes, and spots. 

 The list comprises only those birds that are 

 normally found within the territory described 

 in the title as regular summer or winter 

 visitants, as migrants, or as permanent 

 species. 



A very important contribution to the 

 economy of city administration is the quar- 

 terly Supplement to Municipal Affairs, June, 

 1898, in which the late superintendent of 

 street cleaning in the city of New York, 

 George E. Waring, Jr., presents his observa- 

 tions on street-cleaning methods in European 

 cities, and general reports of his own work 

 in that line. The observations in Europe, 

 made in the summer of 1896, in a special 

 study of the subject, for the information and 

 improvement of Mr. Waring's own depart- 

 ment, include accounts of the conditions as 

 to cleanliness and the methods of doing the 

 work in Vienna, Budapest, Munich, Berlin, 

 Cologne, Brussels, London, Birmingham, 

 Paris, Turin, and Genoa. Mr. Waring finds 

 that the regulations under which the streets 

 are really kept clean in those cities are no 

 better than ours ; " but there is the immense 

 difference that in Europe laws and ordinances 

 mean something and are executed, while here 

 they are treated as mere matters of form." 

 The reports of Mr. Waring's own work in 

 New York embrace a review of the general 

 operations of the department, the report of 

 the snow inspector, and an account of the 

 highly successful plan for the adjustment of 

 labor questions instituted by Mr. Waring. 



Mr. Lauros O. McConaehie, in the study 

 and development of legislative methods 

 which he publishes under the title of Con- 

 gressional Committees (T. Y. Crowell & Co., 

 New York, $1.75), assumes that a complete 

 breakdown of parliamentary machinery took 

 place on the floors of Congress under the 

 sudden and vast augmentation of legislative 

 burdens which our senators and representa- 

 tives had to confront after the civil war. 

 Two schools of reformers came to the front, 

 one of which held up the British parliamen- 

 tary system as a model and directed attention 

 abroad in the search for light ; while the 



