LITERARY NOTICES. 



703 



Frank BoUes ; but they do not appear in the 

 hand-books, and, as Mr. Chamberlain re- 

 marks, " in comparison with the worlc ac- 

 complished by the older writers, and with 

 that which is still unknown, the recent ac- 

 quisitions must be considered slight." Xut- 

 tall's work has been out of print for several 

 years ; but its popularity and real value have 

 kept it in demand, and the few copies re- 

 cently offered for sale were disposed of at 

 high prices. In publishing the new edition 

 instead of issuing it in the form of the origi- 

 nal, or remodeling it to the extent that 

 would be required to arrange it in harmony 

 with the new system in ornithology, the 

 editor has reproduced Nuttall's biographies 

 with few changes beyond pruning them of 

 w^at was obsolete ; has added, in notes dis- 

 tinguished by smaller type, such new facts 

 as seemed needed to bring the descriptions 

 into conformity with the present state of the 

 science; has rewritten the descriptions of 

 plumage, endeavoring to phrase them in well- 

 known and untechnical terms, so that they 

 may be understood by unskilled readers ; and 

 has added a description of the nest and eggs 

 of each species. The untechnical character of 

 the work, and the use of simple, well-known 

 terms in the descriptions, are a feature on 

 which the publishers speak with some pride. 

 Canadian readers have been kept in mind, and 

 accounts are given of every species that has 

 been found within the Dominion east of the 

 Manitoba plains, and of their Canadian dis- 

 tribution. The editor is a specialist in orni- 

 thology, on which he has published numer- 

 ous articles in periodicals devoted tc the sci- 

 ence and monographs. We were interested 

 in reading Nuttall's introduction, which is 

 given entire and unchanged, a foreshadowing 

 of the doctrine of protective mimicry which 

 has been made prominent by Mr A. R. Wal- 

 lace. Some birds, it is observed, "are 

 screened from the attacks of their enemies 

 by an arrangement of colors assimilated to 

 the places which they most frequent for sub- 

 sistence and repose ; thus the wryneck is 

 scarcely to be distinguished from the tree 

 on which it seeks its food ; or the snipe 

 from the soft and springy ground which it 

 frequents. The great plover finds its chief 

 security in stony places, to which its colors 

 are so nicely adapted that the most exact 

 observer may be deceived. The same resort 



is taken advantage of by the night-hawk, 

 partridge, plover, and the American quail 

 the young brood of which squat on the 

 ground, instinctively conscious of being near- 

 ly invisible, from their close resemblance 

 to the broken ground on which they lie, and 

 trust to this natural concealment. The same 

 kind of deceptive and protecting artifice is 

 often employed by birds to conceal or render 

 the appearance of their nests ambiguous. 

 Thus the European wren forms its nest ex- 

 ternally of hay, if against a hay-rick ; cov- 

 ered with lichens, if the tree chosen is so 

 clad ; or made of green moss, when the de- 

 cayed trunk in which it is built is thus cov- 

 ered ; and then, wholly closing it above, 

 leaves a concealed entry in the side. Our 

 humming- bird, by external patches of lichen, 

 gives her nest the appearance of a moss- 

 grown knot. A similar artifice is adopted 

 by our yellow-breasted fly-catcher, or vireo, 

 and others." The first volume is devoted to 

 land birds, the second to game and water 

 birds. The accounts are confined to birds 

 known east of the Mississippi Valley. The 

 work is published in beautiful style, with 

 pictorial illustrations that it would be hard 

 to excel of most of the species, and a colored 

 plate in each volume. 



Christianity and Infallibility : Both or 

 Neither. By the Rev. Daniel Lyons. 

 New York : Longmans, Green & Co. 

 Pp. 284. Price, §1.50. 



This book bears the nihil ohsfat (no ob- 

 jection) of D. Pantauella, S. J., and the im- 

 primatur of the Roman Catholic Bishop of 

 Denver, It was written under the influence 

 of the conviction which the author believes 

 the logic of facts is daily confirming, that 

 " Christianity, to maintain its rightful hold 

 on the reason and conscience of men, needs 

 a living, infallible witness to its truths and 

 principles ; a living, infallible guardian of 

 its purity and integrity, and a living, infalli- 

 ble interpreter of its meaning." The doc- 

 trine of infallibility, he believes, " goes to the 

 very root of the Christian controversy, and 

 supplies the only complete and satisfactory 

 solution of the many and grave difficulties 

 which it involves." Grant it, and in it " you 

 have a ready, easy, and at the same time a 

 perfectly satisfactory solution of the religious 

 controversy with all its difficulties. Reject 



