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The Bird Our Brother; A Contribu- 

 tion TO THE Study of the Bird as 

 He Is in Life By Olive Th(jrne 

 Miller. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

 1908. i2nio. i.\ + 3.1 1 pages. 



This is a very readal)le volume. There 

 is not a word of padding, tjut from her 

 own extended e.xperienre with birds and 

 bird literature, Mrs. Miller has drawn only 

 such material as is pertinent to her chap- 

 ters on the individuality, intelligence, 

 language, education, affections, courtship, 

 amusements and usefulness of birds. The 

 authority and place of publication for all 

 quotations are given in an appendix of 285 

 references, a feature which in itself makes 

 the book of much value. 



With much of what Mrs. Miller says of the 

 bird's individuality and mental equipment 

 we are in accord, but Mrs. Miller, we fear, 

 loves birds too well to be an altogether 

 impartial judge of their real place in 

 nature, by which we mean their degree of 

 mental development and their relations 

 to other forms of life. She presents, there- 

 fore, only such facts as tend to confirm her 

 point of view, ignoring those which show 

 that birds have the faults as well as the 

 virtues of man. Her subtitle, consequently, 

 should read "A Contribution to the Study 

 of the Bird as I Believe Him to Be in 

 Life," and with this modification the book 

 may be accepted as a fair presentation 

 of Mrs. Miller's side of the case. 



Mrs. Miller's definition of a bird student 

 is so admirable that we quote it in full: 

 "When I speak of bird-students or of ob- 

 servers, I do not mean the stroller who 

 who passes leisurely through fields and 

 woods, pausing now and then to notice a 

 bird more or less casually, while the bird 

 on his part is perfectly aware of the scrut- 

 iny, and fully on guard. ... By a bird 

 student, or an observer, I mean one who 

 gives hours and days and weeks and 

 months to the closest observation of one 

 bird or one species, watching to see how 

 he lives and moves and has his being. 

 . . ."— F. M. C. 



The Policemen of the Air; An Acc- 

 ount OF THE Biological Survey of 

 the Depakt.ment of Agriculture. 

 By Henry Wetherbee Henshaw, 

 NationalGeographic Magazine. XIX. 

 IQ08. pp. 79-118, numerous illustra- 

 tions. 



We have here an authoritative state- 

 ment of the work of the Biological Survey 

 by its Administrative Assistant presented 

 as an attractively written essay on Eco- 

 nomic Ornithology and Mammalogy, 

 Faunal Geography, Game Protection, 

 Bird Reservations and Wild Animal 

 Refuges. In summing up the value of 

 birds to agriculture Mr. Henshaw re- 

 marks: "What would happen were birds 

 exterminated no one can foretell with abso- 

 lute certainty, but it is more than likely 

 — nay, it is almost certain — that within 

 a limited time not only would successful 

 agriculture become impossible, but the 

 destruction of the greater part of vegetation 

 would follow. " This paper cannot have 

 too wide a circulation and to any one 

 desirous of materially aiding the cause of 

 bird protection we suggest the donation 

 of half a million copies of it to the National 

 Association of Audubon Societies for free 

 distribution.— F. M. C. 



Catalogue of a Collection of Books 

 ON Ornithology in the Library of 

 Frederic Gallatin, Jr. New York. 

 Privately printed, 1908. Svo. 178 

 pages, 3 photogravures. 

 Ornithological bibliographers who pur- 

 sue 'first' or 'limited' editions as keenly as 

 one would a rare bird, will be interested in 

 this record of 'specimens,' so to speak, in 

 the collection of Mr. Frederic Gallatin, Jr. 

 It contains the complete works of Audu- 

 bon and Wilson, and the larger works of 

 Dresser, Elliot, Gould and others, as well 

 as many less elaborate but more useful 

 publications. Such, for example, as the 

 British Museum Catalogue of Birds. There 

 are also complete sets of 'The Ibis' and 

 'The Auk,' in short, the library is one 

 of the notable collection of bird books in 

 this countrv. — F. M. C. 



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