112 The Ottawa Naturalist. 



NOTES, REVIEWS AND COMMENTS 

 Chapman's Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America. 



If supply may be taken as an index of demand, the large number 

 of books upon ornithology which have appeared within the last few 

 years furnishes an encouraging proof of a growing desire for closer 

 acquaintance with bird life, both on the part of the nature-lover and of 

 the scientific student. Probably no book that has appeared for a long 

 period is so well fitted to satisfy the needs of both these classes as the 

 one whose title has just been quoted. Accuracy and fullness of des- 

 cription, covering all external characters, including every phase of 

 of seasonal and sexual plumage in each species, have been attained 

 without an undue use of technical language ; and these specific descrip- 

 tions alternate throughout the body of the work with delightful sketches 

 of the habits of each bird. Many of the life-histories are from such 

 well known writers as Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller, Miss Florence Mer- 

 riam, William Brewster, Ernest E. Thompson, Bradford Torrey, etc. 



The author is by profession a closet naturalist, but his chapter on 

 " The Study of Birds out of Doors " can only have been written by one 

 who is a lover, as well as a student, of birds, and whose acquaintance 

 with them must have begun at a period when professional methods and 

 closet work were as yet matters of the future. Still the curator of the 

 museum comes to the surface in the following recommendation : "If 

 you would name birds without a gun, by all means first visit a museum 

 and with text-book in hand study those species which you have previouly 

 found [by reference to the nearest local list] are to be looked for near 

 your home. This preliminary introduction will serve to ripen your 

 acquaintance in the field." One field student can remember how a 

 preliminary acquaintance with a row of mounted birds standing " at 

 attention ' on the shelf of a museum has only served to deaden the 



Handbook of Hirds of Eastern North America with Keys i>> the Species an. I 



Descriptions ol then Plumages, Nestsand Eggs, their Distribution ami Migrations, &c. 



By frank M. Chapman, Assistant Curatoi of the Department "I Mammalogy 



ami Ornithologj in the American Museum ol Natural History, New York City, etc. 



New V'ork: 1'. Appleton & Company, 1895. l2 "" '< x ' v - ^ 4 21 PP- 



