512 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



appears to us to be too much given to the fashionable practice 

 of making new " subspecies/^ The various forms of Parus 

 iire, no doubt, not easy to deal with, but the differences 

 between tlie local forms are by no means constant, and it is 

 very difficult, if not impossible in many cases, to assign 

 specimens to a particular form without a knowledge of their 

 localities. 



Mr. Hellmayr reviews the local forms of P. montanus, 

 P. communis, and P. ater, and separates some new subspecies. 



The author also shows that Turdus orientalis Mad. is 

 intermediate between T. torquatus typicus and T. t. alpestris. 



89. Herrick's ' Home Life of Wild Birds.' 



[The Home Life of Wild Birds: 'a New Method of the Study and 

 Photography of Birds. By Francis Hobart Hemck. "With 141 Orig-inal 

 Illustrations from Nature by the Author. 4to. London, liJOl. Pp. xx, 

 149. Putnam's. Price 10s. M.] 



Mr. Herrick's studies have been chiefly carried out in Central 

 INew Hampshire and relate for the most part to the more 

 common American species. They are, however, none the less 

 welcome on tiiat accoutit, and portray with great accuracy 

 the birds and their habits at the nest. Being desirous of 

 shewing them as they really are and their behaviour in the 

 open air rather than under constrained conditions or in 

 caffes, the author contrived a new method of studv, which he 

 practised for two summers. Instead of going to the birds, 

 he vit^tually made the birds come to him, and ensured their 

 tanieness before taking their portraits. In the case of some 

 twenty-six species the nest was first watched to determine the 

 ])eriod and details of incubation; the young, wlien hatched, 

 were next carefully observed, and, when they were considered 

 old enough, the nest and its surroundings Avcrc often bodily 

 removed and set up at some convenient spot, where a movable 

 tent was erected to screen the observer and his camera. Special 

 chapters on " Fear in Birds ^' and '•' Taming without a Cage " 

 shew how soon the birds became familiarized with their new 

 surroundings ; while the result of no lesss than five or six 

 hours' daily watching was the acpiisition of a fine scries of 



