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." C. A. K. 



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 a science. There is no reason why the phonograph might 

 not be brought into use for this purpose; but in the absence of any 

 such investigalions 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. C. A. K. 



The American Naturalist. October, 1891. — Notes on the Hearts 

 of Certain Mammals: By Ida H. Hyde. Brief notes on points of 



