iSooft i^etoe; and 3^ebieto0 



The Warbi.hrs or North Amhrica. By 

 Frank M. Chapman, vvitli the cocipieration 

 of other ornithologists, with 24 full-page 

 coloreii plates by Louis Agassi/ Fuertes 

 and Bruce Horsfall and 8 half-tones of 

 nests and eggs. D. Appleton ci: Co., 

 New York City. 8vo., 320 pages. 



However jaded may be the palate of the 

 weary bird-student who has swallowed the 

 nature-books of the last few years, he will 

 assuredly experience new and pleasant sen- 

 sations on turning the pages of Mr. Chap- 

 man's latest contribution to his particular 

 needs. It is a work valuable to the expert 

 and indispensable to the amateur who would 

 know all that there is to know about the life 

 and surroundings of the Warblers of North 

 America, so fitly called the "best gems of 

 Nature's cabinet." It contains a wealth of 

 biographical ami other detail that is posi- 

 tively bewildering, but the arrangement is 

 good and the volume well printed and of 

 convenient size. 



The plan of the work, which the author 

 rightly hopes "adequately reflects existing 

 knowledge of the North American Mniotil- 

 tidae," is admirably carried out in every 

 detail. Each of the fifty-five species and 

 nineteen subspecies peculiar to the conti- 

 nent is treated separately, with a colored 

 figure of each species. These plates, by 

 Fuertes and Horsfall, having already ap- 

 peared in Bird-Lore, need no commen- 

 dation here. There are, in addition, a dozen 

 new half-tones illustrating nests and eggs. 

 An introduction of thirty-six pages is devoted 

 to 'General Characters,' 'Plumage,' 'Distri- 

 bution,' 'Migration,' 'Song,' 'Nesting 

 Habits,' 'Food' and 'Mortality,' the remain- 

 ing 301 covering the individual species. 

 Under each of these will be found first, its 

 'Distinguishing Characters,' followed by 

 'General Distribution,' 'Summer Range,' 

 'Winter Range,' 'Spring Migration,' 'Fall 

 Migration,' 'The Bird and its Haunts,' 

 'Song,' 'Nesting-Site.' 'Nest,' 'Eggs,' 

 'Nesting Dates' and 'Biographical Refer- 

 ences' — in short, nothing is lacking save the 

 purely technical which would be out of place 



in a volume of this kind. This brief outline 

 of contents, however, gives very little idea 

 of the valuable contributions to the life-his- 

 tories of the birds which have flowed from 

 the author's own pen or have been judi- 

 ciously culled here and therefrom the writings 

 of others. Indeed, our author has been so 

 generous in crediting the contributions of 

 others that he has, we think, too modestly 

 put himself in the background while cover- 

 ing his retreat with quotation marks. There 

 has also been much original matter contrib- 

 uted to the book; Professor Cooke's migra- 

 tion data and Mr. Gerald Thayer's descrip- 

 tion of songs and habits, being especially 

 noteworthy 



Among the numerous praiseworthy features 

 of the book may be noted the efforts to de- 

 scribe songs. Now, not for a moment should 

 the current use of 'cheps' and 'zees' and even 

 musical notation be discouraged; but it must 

 not be forgotten that, at best, these symbols 

 merely jog the memory of the individual who 

 writes them in his note-book and mean 

 nothing to ears that have not heard the 

 original music. Inasmuch as most bird notes 

 are far removed from human rendition, a 

 sentence, such as "you must come to the 

 woods, or you won't see me," which Mr. 

 Chapman felicitously attributes to the 

 Hooded Warbler, is quite as likely to rouse 

 the memory echo as any jumble of meaning- 

 less syllables. We note, too, with regret, 

 that the 'teacher' song of the Oven-bird is 

 merely scotched. Any one who can put the 

 accent on the first syllable certainly gets the 

 cart before the horse. 



The care in^the descriptions of plumages 

 and the elaborateness of the tables of migra- 

 tion data are also features deserving of 

 especial mention, and there is a novel group- 

 ing of the Warblers according to their 

 songs. 



Belief in the stability of popular names 

 receives a severe shock in the loss of our old 

 friend, the Maryland Yellow-throat, that 

 must now be known as the Northern Yellow- 

 throat with a Latin name a foot long. We 



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