96 



THE OSPEEY. 



fully illustrated, and some of the pictures are 

 better than the text. The best are of course 

 those bv Mr. L. A. Fuertes. and we happen to 

 know that it is not the fault of the publishers 

 that they have been used without his permission. 

 The ne.xt best are Mr. Thompson's, always 

 i;-ood character studies, never failing- to g-ive 

 pleasure. The worst are those derived from 

 some government pviblication, in not one of 

 which did we ever yet see a good bird picture. 

 The ones which are best suited to the book, be- 

 ing- those which will catch a child's eye, are the 

 colored plates derived from the Chicag-o publica- 

 tion, "Birds." An appendix gives a keytoafew 

 birds grouped by color — better not have any 

 such key in a bonk like this — and a list of vari- 

 ous New England birds grouped by the places 

 in which they they may be found. The most 

 serious fault of the book is the very great num- 

 ber of loose, vague or wrong- statements it 



makes about birds. It is all very well to plead 

 that the whole truth cannot be taug^ht to chil- 

 dren, but that does not condone positive un- 

 truth. For example, on page 1.52. the number of 

 species of Hummingbirds is said to be "over a 

 thousand." If the author had consulted any 

 authority, she would have discovered that not 

 half that number are known. And why does 

 she speak of birds as being "born." when the 

 exactly right word for the way birds come into 

 the world is //(j/r/; .^ Children might as well be 

 taught to use the rig-ht words in the rig:ht places. 

 The authcu' does not seem to us to know enough 

 about birds to teach children ornithology, and 

 not well posted on the authorities to which she 

 mig-ht turn for information. For example, she 

 does not seem to know who are the authors of 

 Citizen Bird, and perhaps never saw that best 

 of all books for children. — J. C. B. 



