THE OSPREY. 



53 



little book, 'The Story of the Birds,' came to the A. 

 O. U. Congress from Mexico, Mo., and while in New 

 York placed the manuscript of a new book with New 

 York publishers. 



'Birds of the San Bernardino Mountains,' in the 

 November Osprev, was not credited as having been 

 read before the Cooper Club, as is customary with 

 such matter. 



Mr. Charles Hallock has moved from St. Paul to 

 St. Louis. We understand he will continue to edit 

 the 'Western Field and Stream,' of St. Paul as hith- 

 erto. 



Mr. Walton Mitchell of St. Paul has accepted a 

 position on the Santa Fe Railway survey in New 

 Mexico. 



Recent Literature. 



Taxidernty and Zoological Collc'ding. A Complete 

 Handbook for the Amateur Taxidermist, Collector, 

 Osteologist, Museum-builder, Sportsman and Trav- 

 eler. By William T. Hornadav. With Chapters 

 on Collecting and Preserving Insects. By W. J. Hol- 

 land, Ph. D., D. D. Illustrated by Charles Brad- 

 ford Hudson and other artists. 24 plates and 85 

 text illustrations. Fifth edition. New York : Charles 

 Scribner's Sons, 1897. Cloth $2.50. 



It would be superfluous for us to say much in praise 

 of Hornaday's 'Taxidermy ;' it is, of course, the best 

 work on taxidermy ever written. Mr. Hornaday, the 

 writer, and maker and director of America's greatest 

 zoological parks, has in former years left behind him 

 the greatest monuments to the art of taxidermy. He 

 was for eight years Chief Taxidermist of the U. S. 

 National Museum. One splendid feature of the pres- 

 ent volume is that it contains the most complete di- 

 rections and information with requisite illustrations, 

 all boiled down with no matter wanting, in a $2.50 

 book.— W. A. J. 



Handbook of Birds of Easlern Xortli A))ieriiti. By 

 Frank M. Chapman, Assistant Curator of the De- 

 partment of Mammalogy and Ornithology in the 

 American Museum of Natural History, New York 

 City. With full-page plates in colors and in black 

 and white, and upward of one hundred and fifty cuts 

 in the text. Fourth edition New York : D. Apple- 

 ton & Company, 1897. Cloth $1.75 



That Chapman's 'Handbook' has gone into its 

 fourth edition since its publication in 1895, is a good 

 indication that large sales are the due appreciation of 

 so excellent a work As a little handbook of the birds 

 of Eastern North Americi it is without doubt the 

 best thing of its kind on the market. The work con- 

 tains keys to species and descriptions of their plum- 

 ages, nests and eggs ; their distribution and migra- 

 tions ; a brief account of their haunts and habits ; and 

 introductory chapters on the studv of ornithology, 

 how to identify birds, and how to collect and preserve 

 birds, their nests and eggs. — W\ A. J. 



Bird Neighbors. An Introductory Acquaintance with 

 One Hundred and Fifty Birds Commonly Found in 

 the Gardens. Meadows, and Woods about our Homes 

 By Neltje Blanchan, with Introduction by John 

 Burrows, and 50 Colored Plates. New York : Doub- 

 leday & McClure Co., 1897. Cloth $2.00. 



The new book-publishing firm of Doubleday & 

 McClure make their initial bow in the field of bird- 

 literature with a popular handbook' which is as ex- 

 cellent as it is unique. It is called ' Bird Neighbors," 

 and the author chooses to include under this head 



some one hundred and fifty species of the commoner 

 Passeres which will be met with by the beginner. The 

 work of identification has been taken up from the 

 beginners' standpoint : the novice's first idea of a bird 

 is its color, so the birds are grouped according to 

 their conspicuous colors. .A, supplementary chapter 

 tells which groups of birds show preferences for cer- 

 tain localities; another deals with family traits and 

 characteristics; and again, the species are grouped 

 according to their season of residence. The descrip- 

 tions are free from technicalities, and the author has 

 made them clear and vivid ; and the fact that John 

 Burrows has edited the work pervades its pages with 

 requisite authority. Both the text and index are well 

 supplied with the various popular names. Fifty beau- 

 tiful full-page plates illustrate 50 species in colors, 

 with an accuracy which is quite sufficient for the pur- 

 pose of the work Altogether, the beginner can hardly 

 find a better book at this low price to start him or 

 her on the right road to an acquaintance with bird- 

 lore.— W. A. J. 



rio7o to Knoio the Ducks, ileese and Sloans of Xorth 

 America. By Charles B. Cory, Boston : Little, 

 Brown & Co., 1897. Paper 75c. 



What was said of Mr. Cory's companion volume, the 

 'Shore Birds,' in the November Osprev, can well be 

 said of this one. While they are intended for the use 

 and enlightenment of the sportsman, thev can be noless 

 valuable to the general bird-student. The two vol- 

 umes are in paper covers, and are sold at a low price; 

 though it would seem preferable to have such works 

 in board covers. We republish a large illustration of 

 the extinct Labrador Duck which appears in the pres- 

 ent volume. — W. A. J. 



Sketches of Some Common Birds. By P. M. Sillo- 

 WAV. Cincinnati, Ohio : Editor Publishing Company, 

 1897. Cloth $1.50. 



This is a collection of the pleasing bird sketches 

 such as those Prof Silloway sometimes writes for The 

 OspREY A part of those contained in the volume, the 

 author says, was originally prepared for publication 

 in the St. Louis ' Globe-I3emocrat,' and some have 

 appeared in The Osprev and other periodicals. The 

 work is divided into eight chapters ; the first, ' Mead- 

 ow Musicians, ' contains sketches of the Prairie Horned 

 Lark, Meadowlark, Bobolink, Dickcissel, Bartramian 

 Sandpiper, and (irasshopper Sparrow ; then follows 

 chapters on the ' Residents of the Orchard, ' ' Tenants 

 of the Hedgerow,' 'Birds of the Bushes,' 'Friends 

 of the Highway and Dooryard,' 'Rambles Through 

 the Woodlands,' 'Birds of Beak and Talon,' and 

 'River-bank and Swamp-lake.' These subjects are 

 quite suggestive of the excellent arrangement of 

 the work and the interest of its contents. The book 

 is illustrated with some beautiful photographs of birds, 

 from life, a number of which have appeared in The 

 OsPREY.— W. A. J. 



I'he Sharp-tailed Sparro7c's of Alaine. With Re- 

 marks on their Distribution and Relationship. By 

 Arthur H. Norton And Ornithological .Votes By 

 same author. Pages 97-104 of Proceedings of the 

 Portland Society of Natural History, 1897. 



The first is a comprehensive paper treating the 

 subject as the title implies In the second paper Mr. 

 Norton adds the Arctic Horned and the Dusky Horned 

 Owds to the fauna of Maine having distinguished 

 these two sub-species among the specimens of Horned 

 Owls in the Society's collection; the specimens of these 

 two sub-species were taken December 6, 1869, and 

 March 12, 1870, respectively. Also to the 'Portland 

 List ' are added the Caspian Tern, the Hoary Redpoll 

 and the Greater Redpoll. — W. A. J. 



