THE OSPEEY. 



143 



tensively annotated with regard to geographical 

 and other data. The nomenclature disregards 

 the A. O. U. Code, and rather leans upon the 

 authority of the great British Museum Cata- 

 logue.— E. C. 



Revekies and Recollections of a NATfKA- 

 LIST. Bv Oliver Davie. Columbus, Ohio: Oliver 

 Davie and Co., 1898. Edition de Luxe, $2.00. 



Mr. Davie is a naturalist, particularly an 

 ornithologist and taxidermist. He has. no 

 doubt, many friends among bird students who, 

 in their earlier days, before they heg'an to use 

 ■"Cones' Key" or "Ridg'way's Manual," had 

 owned a copy of his "Nests and Eg'g's of North 

 American birds." To them this book will 

 appeal most. The "Reveries" — the unconven- 

 tional paragraphing" and chapter arrangement 

 will bear out the title — are not wholly restricted 

 til tho.se of a naturalist; in fact, a good share of 

 the pag'es is devoted to literary criticism. 



Mr. Davie's style and sentiment are al.so very 

 poetic, as the reader will find out in chapter 

 one — the "Introduction." Beginning'' with 

 chapter two, in 1875, we are told that Mr. Davie 

 began a collection of birds. And then an inci- 

 dent of the shooting of a "winged water-lily," 

 or, rather, a Common Tern, is told in a way 

 characteristic of Mr. Davie. To finish oif with 

 the Tern, an excellent paragraph on Terns is 

 borrowed from Mr. William Brewster. From 

 here on through the bulk of the chapter the 

 reveries are of poets and prose writers. In the 

 first lines of chapter three the taxidermist 

 asserts himself. He "had longed to be a Horna- 

 day," but "somehow" he "always had too many 

 irons in the fire " The chapter leads on to a 

 story of a struggle of a Robin and a young 

 snake, and another of a battle in which a Hawk 

 and a weasel were the princi])als. Something 

 about Owls is next in order, from which we 

 follow on by the way of various reveries upon 

 economic ornithology and other subjects to 

 some notes on Audubon and the artist Bam- 

 brough, who lived in Columbus and once traveled 

 with Audubon. In the last chapter, of ten 

 pages, a number of species of birds are put 

 before us as Mr. Davie sees them. 



The volinne is an example of fine book-mak- 

 ing. Between prettily adorned silk-cloth covers 

 there is some neat letterpress on a high-grade, 

 deckle-edg'^e paper. The frontispiece is a photo- 

 gravure showing the author in his study. Most 

 of the twelve full-page plates which are given 

 do not directly bear upon the text; they show 

 some examples of Mr. Davie's taxidermist work, 

 several drawings by Mr. E. D. Cheney, and 

 portraits of Audubon and Bambrough, explana- 

 tory notes of each being given on fly-leaves. 

 The work is published in an edition dc luxe of 

 200 numbered copies. — W. A. J. 



The Auk, April, 1899, pp. 135-216, ix-xxix. 



A beautiful colored plate by Fuertes of I.cii- 

 eiiria phalerata makes a striking frontispiece to 

 Mr. Bang's article on the Hummingbirds of 

 Columbia. Mr. O. C Libby writes on the noctur- 

 nal flight of migrating^ birds. John Murdoch's 

 historical notice of Ross' Rosy Gull is remark- 

 ably complete — a good monograph on a notable 

 subject, by one who knows about it. Mr. Bar- 

 low has the nesting of the Hermit Warbler at 

 full length. The very interesting ana which 



formed the subject of Mr. Witnier Stone's ad- 

 dress before the A. O. U. last November are 

 now published under the title of some "Phila- 

 delphia ornithological collections and collectors, 

 1784-1850" — charming gossip, by no means de- 

 void of historical and biographical weight, and 

 well worthy of permanent record. We read 

 some of the general notes with g-rim pleasure — 

 they would delight a cynic who should feel scep- 

 tical of the omniscience of the A. O. U. Com- 

 mittee on Nomenclature. If Mr. Harry C. 

 Oberholzer felt grieved at the way some of his 

 new birds were lately squelched by the commitee 

 or squeezed in the 0.sprey's claws, he has his 

 innings now; both he and Dr. C. W. Richmond 

 show that a large number of names still sanc- 

 tioned by the committee must be changed by 

 the canons of the code. After operating- since 

 1883, with two editions of the Check-list and 

 nine Supplements, we seem to have been brought 

 to such a lame and impotent conclusion, and to 

 have so far receded from instead of approaching- 

 stability of nomenclature, that perhaps the old 

 committee had better be discharged, and a new 

 one appointed, to consist entirely of younger 

 men who have shown aptitude for bibliogra- 

 phical and synonymatic research. Mr. Ober- 

 holser and Dr. Richmond would make g^ood 

 members, and no doubt three others could be 

 found. Meanwhile, having- foundered at sea 

 among Latin names, we may be well content to 

 take any we can find having any show of au- 

 thority or semblance of propriety— or better still 

 we may use English names, which are much 

 more definite and more generally understood. 

 than those of the A. U. U. Code. We are more 

 than ever convinced that stability in scientific 

 nomenclature is an iridescent dream; but possi- 

 bly the coming generation of nomenclators 

 like Richmond and Oberholser may make it a 

 reality, if Allen, Brewster, Coues, Merriam 

 and Ridgway will retire from the field whereon 

 they have been worsted. Mr. Brewster has on 

 p. 2(19 a genial and humorous skit on the spell- 

 ing of names, in which he pokes fun at Mr. D. 

 G. Elliot and Dr. Elliott Coues for the dilference 

 in spelling one part of their respective names, 

 also adducing President Eliot of Harvard as a 

 third .subspecies of the same word. One of the 

 most striking- articles in thi^ umber of the Auk 

 is Mr. Wayne's account of he enormous and 

 almost incredible destruction of birds of South 

 Carolina by the first cold wave of February, 

 1899. "To say Fox Sparrows and Snowbirds 

 were frozen to death by the )iiil/ioiis is not an 

 exaggerated statement, but a conservative one;" 

 tens of thousands of Woodcock shared the same 

 fate, and countless more of various species were 

 destroyed by this one act of God. That is a 

 greater destruction of bird life than ornithology 

 has inflicted upon the bird world since the 

 .science began. It makes us think that the 

 Almighty never read an Audubon circular, per- 

 haps never heard of an Audubon society or even 

 knew of Bird-Lore. We find no fault with Him 

 ourselves, because we know the existence of evil 

 is necessary; but we suggest that the clergy, 

 who are on more intimate terms with Him than 

 we pretend to be, should petition Him not to do 

 .so any more, and reason with Him. and arg-ue 

 with Him, and try to convince Him that such 

 apparently wanton and capricious destruction 



