274 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and because it describes in their primitive condition and wildness regions 

 and scenes wbich are being fast invaded and spoiled by civilization. The 

 book is completed by sixty " episodes " or essays and sketches on subjects 

 that came under Audubon's observation or were suggested to him by his 

 adventures, all but one of which were published in the first three volumes 

 of the Ornithological Biographies, but were omitted from the octavo edition 

 of the Birds of America. One — My Style of Drawing Birds — has been 

 added, and two have been omitted as not being of general interest. Of the 

 forty-five pictures and plates, eleven are portraits of Audubon, and nine 

 are facsimiles of diplomas. 



Bird Craft — craft about birds ; knowledge of them, of their ways, ap- 

 pearance, and song, when and where to look for them, how to approach 

 them, acquaintance with them — these are what Mi's. Mabel Osgood Wright 

 undertakes to convey in the book of that name; * and the undertaking will 

 be found to be crowned with a large degree of success by those who go out 

 into the field intelligently, with shaqj sight and the book in hand. A 

 " pocket full of patience " is also prescribed by the author in lieu of the salt 

 of the legend. For naming the birds she gives the scientific terms contain- 

 ing their own definition, which lose force when translated, and the common 

 English names, also recognized by science, which remain practically un- 

 changed. Then there are local names, which are confusing and changing, 

 and need not be treasured up. One does not have to give up the pleasures 

 of acquaintance with birds, even if he lives in the city. Seventy species 

 have been seen in Boston Common, and one hundred and thirty in Central 

 Park. Further, the specimens in the museums are accessible, where they 

 are now ustially placed in the attitudes of life. The dweller in the suburbs 

 or in the real country has still greater advantages with living birds. The 

 study of the " living bird, in his love songs, his house-building, his haunts, 

 and his migrations," is particularly insisted upon. " The gun that silences 

 the bird voice, and the looting of nests, should be left to the practiced hand 

 of science; you have no excuse for taking life, whether actual or embry- 

 onic, as your very ignorance will cause useless slaughter, and the egg-col- 

 lecling fever of the average boy savors more of the greed of passion than 

 of ornithological ardor." The study of birds is best begun in the spring, 

 when the untrained eye can become gradually accustomed to its new voca- 

 tion before it is overtaxed,. and the birds can be taken in all their moods 

 from the opening of the season on. So Mrs. Wright takes us, and accom- 

 panies us in our wanderings in birdland, like a conversing companion, 

 while she does not neglect to give us the technical information we need. 

 It would be hard to speak too well of the almost vitalized bird portraits 

 which Mr. Louis Agassiz Fuertes has fui"nished in the eighty full-page 

 plates with which the book is adorned. 



GENERAL NOTICES. 



Inequality and Progress is the title of a 1 the scientist, by Georffc Harris, a professor 



rather disappointing volume,f at any rate to 



* Bird Craft: A Field Book of Two Hundred 

 Song, Game, and Water Birds. By Mabel Osgood 

 Wright. New York : The Macmillan Company. 

 Pp. 317. Price, $2.50. 



+ Inequality and Progress. By George Harris. 



in the Andover Theological Seminary. The 

 position Avhich the author takes — namely, 

 that inequality is an essential to progress, 



Boston and New York : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

 Pp. 104. 



