00ft jBtetDfi^ ant) ^^etotetos 



In American Fields and Forests. By 

 Henry D.Thoreau, John Burroughs. 

 John Muir, Bradford Torrey, Dal- 

 las Lore Sharp, and Olive Thorne 

 Miller. With illustrations from photo- 

 graphs by Herbert W. Gleason. Hough- 

 ton, Mifflin & Co. i2nio. Pages i.\4-378. 

 Seven full-page plates. $1.50, net. 



This volume contains selections from 

 the writings of the distinguished group of 

 literary naturalists whose works are pub- 

 lished by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. To 

 have them all represented in a single 

 volume emphasizes, possibly, the differ- 

 ences in mental attitude toward their 

 subject, as well as their methods of 

 presenting what they have to say about it. 

 Thus, by turning a page or two, we may 

 compare Thoreau with Muir, or Torrey 

 with Burroughs, discovering, for example, 

 how Thoreau in writing of ' Wild Apples,' 

 or Muir of 'The Sequoia,' reveal as much 

 of themselves as of their themes. — F. M.C. 



The Biota of the San Bernardino 

 Mountains. By Joseph Grinnell. 

 University of California Publications in 

 Zoology. Vol. v. No. i, 8vo. Pages 

 I -170. Plates 1-24. Dec. 31, 1908. 



Doctor Grinnell presents here the results 

 of three seasons' work in a region of great 

 biologic interest. He devoted his attention 

 not alone to birds, but, also, to mammals, 

 reptiles and plants, having made, in fact, 

 a biologic survey of the area under con- 

 sideration. Pages 50-134 are devoted to 

 the annotated list of the 139 species of 

 birds observed, the often e.xtended remarks 

 on habits or critical comments on relation- 

 ships bearing witness to the author's 

 powers of observation in the field, as well 

 as to the keenness of his discrimination 

 in the study. There is, also, an important 

 introductory chapter on ' Bird Population 

 and Its Modifying Influences.' 



We have not space to review this paper 

 in detail, but we heartily commend it to 

 ambitious young bird students as a first- 

 class exposition of modern methods in 

 faunal research. — F. M. C. 



Birds of the World: .\ Popular .Ac- 

 count. By Frank H. Knowlton ; 

 with a chapter on the Anatomy of Birds, 

 by Frederic A. Lucas; the whole 

 edited by Robert Ridgway. New 

 York. Henry Holt & Co. 1909. Roy. 

 Svo. xiv+873 pages; 16 colored plates; 

 236 half-tones and line cuts. 



Since the appearance of the Standard 

 Natural History in 1885, no general 

 work on the birds of the world has been 

 published in America. Several volumes 

 (e. g., the volume on birds in the Royal 

 Natural History, and Evans' 'Birds') 

 have been placed on sale in this country, 

 but they were not prepared with an Ameri- 

 can audience in mind. There was, there- 

 fore, abundant room for a work of this 

 character. 



Doctor Knowlton has, in our opinion, 

 wisely devoted his attention chiefly to the 

 biographies of the species treated. Those 

 who are interested in the structure and 

 classification of birds prefer, as a rule, to 

 get their information from original 

 sources, where it is presented with a detail 

 not possible in a work of this kind. 



We have, therefore, an introduction 

 dealing with the general characters of 

 birds, their molting, nesting, distribution 

 and migration, together with a chapter 

 on their anatomy by F. A. Lucas. Follow- 

 ing this introductory matter (pages 1-44), 

 and adapting essentially the classification 

 of Gadow, the orders, families and repre- 

 sentative species of the birds of the world 

 are treated serially. The ever-present 

 necessity for condensation keeps constantly 

 before the author of a volume of this nature 

 the matter of selection and rejection, both 

 as regards the species to be included and 

 what is said concerning them, but Doctor 

 Knowlton has here shown excellent judg- 

 ment, although he does not appear always 

 to have availed himself of the latest 

 sources of information, and his painstaking 

 labors have given to us one of the best 

 general works on biographical ornithology 

 with which we are familiar. 



The black-and-white illustrations are 



(131) 



