134 



Bird -Lore 



with which it is embellished, there may 

 be differences of opinion. — F. E. T.. Beal. 



On the Birds' Highway. By Reginald 

 Heber Howe, Jr. With Photographic 

 Illustrations by the Author, and a 

 Frontispiece in color from a Painting 

 by Louis Agassiz Fuertes. 



This is a contribution to the class of 

 literature which John Burroughs and 

 Bradford Torrey have made so deservedly 

 ly popular. It cannot, however, be said 

 that the author has reached the standard 

 of his prototypes. His observations were 

 made in the Atlantic states from Vir- 

 ginia to Maine, and his descriptions bear 

 evidence of sympathy with his subject. 

 The illustrations include an admirable 

 frontispiece of Chickadees by Louis 

 Fuertes, thirteen full - page half-tones, 

 for the most part illustrating the locali- 

 ties described, and numerous half-tone 

 ' thumb-nail pictures ' in the text, largely 

 taken from mounted birds. Some of the 

 latter are effective ; others are too small or 

 too indistinct to be of value to those who 

 would need them. 



An appendix gives nominal lists of the 

 birds observed at Bristol, R. L : Wash- 

 ington, D. C ; Chevy Chase, Md ; Hub- 

 bardstown, Mass., and Chateaugay Lake, 

 N. Y.— F. M. C. 



The Danger of Introducing Noxious 

 Animals and Birds. By T. S. Palmer. 

 Yearbook of the Department of Agri- 

 culture for 1898, pp., 87-110; I half- 

 tone plate and 6 cuts in the text. 



Birds as Weed Destroyers. By Syl- 

 vester D. JuDD. Yearbook of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture for i8g8, pp., 

 221-232 ; I half-tone plate and 7 cuts 

 in the text. 



Economic Relations of Birds and Their 

 Food By F. E. L. Beal. Reprinted 

 from the Proceedings of the Twenty- 

 fourth Annual Meeting of the New 

 Jersey State Horticultural Society, Janu- 

 ary 4 and 5, 1899 



As long as man's attitude toward nature 

 is the standpoint of dollars and cents, 

 bird-lovers will welcome every fact which 

 places them in possession of a fresh argu- 

 ment to be used where appeals to senti- 

 ment are of no avail. It is, therefore, 

 with great satisfaction that we receive these 



sound, convincing papers on economic 

 zoology. 



Dr. Palmer's paper has long been 

 needed and, fortunately or unfortunately, 

 so unanswerable are the facts which he 

 presents, that one would imagine universal 

 knowledge of them would be all that was 

 necessary to avert further danger from 

 the introduction of exotic species. The 

 subject, however, should receive the 

 prompt attention of legislators, in order 

 that it may be duly placed under the 

 control of the proper authorities — obvi- 

 ously the officials of the Biologic Survey 

 of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture. 



In giving us the results of his studies 

 of the food of certain seed-eating birds, 

 Dr Judd at the same time places their 

 economic importance so far beyond dis- 

 pute that we trust every agriculturist in 

 the land may become fj^miliar with his- 

 facts and figures. None of the many 

 valuable papers issued by the Biological 

 Survey has had a more obvious value 

 than this one. 



In his lecture before the New Jersey- 

 Horticultural Society, Professor Beal dis- 

 cusses unprejudicedly birds' power for 

 good or evil. ,He shows that while in- 

 sects, especially certain noxious species, 

 have greatly increased since the settle- 

 ment of this country, birds have decreased, 

 and that in order to restore the balance 

 disturbed by man, an increase in the 

 number of our birds is greatly to be 

 desired, — F". M. C. 



Book News 



Every lover of animals must rejoice in 

 the phenomenal success achieved by Ernest 

 Seton Thompson's 'Wild Animals I have 

 Known.' Although published only last 

 October, over 14,000 copies have been 

 sold, and the book's popularity increases 

 as its charm becomes more widely known. 

 Mr. Thompson has done more to bridge 

 the gap between human life and animal 

 life than any writer we have known. 

 One has only to read his work to be- 

 come convinced of one's kinship with, 

 the lower forms of life. 



