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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



TuE American Garden : a Monthly Illus- 

 trated Journal devoted to Garden Art. 

 24 pajres. jjiS a Year. Beach, Sou & Co., 

 No. 7 Barclay Street, New York. 



Under the able editorial management of 

 Mr. James Hogg, this journal is doing ex- 

 cellent service in the interest of gardening 

 and fruit culture. It contains each mouth 

 a large amount of interesting and valuable 

 matter, characterized, in the main, by a di- 

 rectness of statement and common-sense 

 that quickly win the confidence of the read- 

 er, and assure him that he is in the hands 

 of a safe and competent instructor. From 

 the thirty-two titles in the last number, the 

 following may be taken as a fair sample of 

 the variety and practical character of the 

 subjects treated: "Insects injurious to 

 Room -Plants," " Fresh - Water Aquaria," 

 "The Artistic Influence of Flowers," "Trop- 

 ical Scenery," "About Ferns," "The Truf- 

 fle," " Stillingia Sebifera, or Tallow-Tree," 

 " The Carolina Poplar," " Watering Plants," 

 and " Thinning out Fruit." 



Birds of the Northwest. By Elliot Coues, 

 M. D., U. S. A. 791 pages. Washing- 

 ton: Government Printing-OflSce, 1874. 



The basis of the present volume is main- 

 ly an unpublished report prepared by the 

 author, in 1862, upon the ornithological col- 

 lections made in the Missouri region by the 

 naturalists of the expedition under Captain 

 Reynolds, and afterward extended so as to 

 embrace the ornithological results of previ- 

 ous explorations, in 1856-57, by Lieutenant 

 Warren, in the region of the Upper Missouri, 

 Yellowstone, and Platte Rivers. In 1872 

 Dr. Hayden, U. S. Geologist, expressed to 

 the author his desire to publish a treatise 

 on the ornithology of the Western Territo- 

 ries, which he had explored. Dr. Coues 

 undertook the task of elaborating the ma- 

 terial collected since the writing of his 

 original report, and the whole result is pub- 

 lished in the book now before us, which is 

 believed to be fairly abreast of the present 

 state of the science. To bring the work 

 within the compass of a single volume, and 

 to give it a distinctive character apart from 

 the general work on " North American Or- 

 nithology " in preparation by Profs. Baird, 

 Brewer, and Ridgway, its scope is restricted 

 to the Missouri region. The birds of this 

 region, like most others of North America, 



having been repeatedly and suflBciently de- 

 scribed, text of this technical kind has been 

 omitted as a rule, to make room for fresher 

 matter of more general interest, but par- 

 ticular plumages, not yet well known, are 

 described. The distribution of the species, 

 their residence or migration, and their 

 abundance or scarcity, are worked out, not 

 only within the region indicated, but through- 

 out the general area they inhabit. All the 

 species at present known to inhabit this re- 

 gion are given, and represent a large ma- 

 jority of the birds of North America. The 

 author is brief in the cases of the best 

 known Eastern birds, in order to devote 

 more space to the history of species upon 

 which less has already been written. Three 

 families, Laridce, Colymbida, and Podicipi- 

 dcc, are made the subjects of special mono- 

 graphs. 



The Elements of Embryology. By Mi- 

 chael Foster, M. D., and Francis M. 

 Balfour, M. A. London : Macmillan, 

 1875. 272 pages. Price, $2.25. 



This is the first installment of a sys- 

 tematic introduction to the study of embry- 

 ology. For the sake of making the first 

 steps in this interesting branch of science 

 as easy as possible, the authors consider in 

 the present volume only the embryogeny 

 of the common fowl. The development of 

 the chick once mastered, the study of other 

 forms becomes an easy matter. The work 

 consists of nine chapters, with an Appendix. 

 In Chapter I. we have a description of the 

 egg, and an account of the changes which 

 take place up to the beginning of incuba- 

 tion. Chapter II. is a summary of the his- 

 tory of incubation. The other chapters, 

 down to the ninth, indicate the changes 

 which occur from the first day of incuba- 

 tion down to the end of that process. Chap- 

 ter IX. is on the development of the skull. 

 In the Appendix are given practical instruc- 

 tions for studying the development of the 

 chick. 



Improvement of Health. By James Knight, 

 M. D. 406 pages. Price, $1.50. New- 

 York : G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1875. 

 This is the second edition of this book 

 on the improvement of health by natural 

 means, including a history of food and a 

 consideration of its substantial qualities. 



