136 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol 7-No. 17 



Recent Publications. 



"The Secret of Wings" was a recogized 

 comindriim even in the days of lung Solo- 

 mon, and the curiosity of most observers 

 of oui- feathered friends must frequently 

 have been awakened on this same point. 

 Mr. Starkweather seems to have shed light 

 on the subject at last, claiming indeed to 

 have reduced the philosojihy of flight to so 

 exact a system that simple experiments 

 with a canary or pigeon will sustain his po 

 sition and ocularly demonstrate the truth 

 of his theory. He goes back to the verti- 

 cal stroke claimed by Borelli, reviews the 

 downward and backward and the upward 

 and forward strokes so generally believed 

 in ; the twisting, rotating and bending of 

 feathers and -wings, and other current hy- 

 potheses, showing the objections to each. 

 He studies the contrasts and analogies of 

 progression in fishes, insects and birds, the 

 flying-fish, bat, etc. ; compares the poising 

 of the gold-fish and the humming-bird, 

 notes and explains the "swallow-tail" in 

 birds that feed on the wing and the same 

 peculiarity in fishes of analogous habits. 

 He shows why the wing is concave, the 

 quill feathers one-sided, and shows the 

 striking diSerence of function in those 

 that are at right angles with and those 

 parallel to the body. The design of each 

 is so clearly given that "the way of an 

 eagle in the air" can hardly be called a 

 mystery any longer. He evidently views 

 the subject from a utilitarian standpoint 

 and assures aeronauts that for them his 

 work is "replete with seed thoughts." 



••Bright Feather.s." Regarding my 

 '• Bright Feathers," would say that the 

 work will be complete in twelve or fifteen 

 parts. It will be devoted entirely to our 

 native birds noted for brightness and 

 beauty of plumage colorations. 



I am aware that there may be no particular 

 necessity for such a work, but it is afford- 

 ing me much pleasure in its execution. It 

 is all my own work. The plates, initials 



and other drawings of nests and eggs, 

 when they appear, are photo-engraved re- 

 productions of pen and ink di-awdngs of 

 my own execution. The coloring is also 

 my o^vn, and fails, I must confess, to arrive 

 at as high a standard of exactness and ex- 

 cellence as I desii'e. This is owing to fre- 

 quent interraptions and coloring by lamj) 

 light. I give only my evenings and spare 

 moments to the work, and follow it up from 

 pure love of the science. I sent you Part 

 IV. — more on account of the conception 

 of "the oologist" than anything else, 

 thinking it might please you to have it. I 

 had your interesting little pubMcation in 

 mind when I made it. 



The edition of •'Bright Feathers" is 

 small, (only 200 copies, which becomes 

 large when one has to hand-color all the 

 plates as he can snatch time), and the ex- 

 pense of its publication is just about met 

 by local subscriptions. In the last two num- 

 bers of tlie work I propose to give a dupli- 

 cate set of impressions from the plates, 

 \rithout color, so that' each possessor of a 

 set shall have the figures both colored and 

 uncolored. 



I have in mind, after this is done, to de- 

 stroy all the plates. This vrill, I think, 

 make the work of some value to bibliophiles 

 and enable me to secure some return for 

 such sets as I may have left. What do 

 you think of such a course ? I judge from 

 the tenor of yoiu' publication and the occa- 

 sional bookish strain of the advertisements, 

 that you are curious for rare works, espec- 

 ially those relating in any way to oraithol- 

 ogy. Allow me to say that Part III was 

 very hastily executed ; beside an error in 

 the scientific name, several infelicities of 

 expression oceui', which would have been 

 corrected had I been at home to attend 

 to it. — Frank li. Rathhun, Aiihuni, 

 ]SI'ew York. 



[The above was written in answer to some qnestion put 

 by U(* about the work *' Bright Feathers." It states tlie case 

 so clearly about a work that is too little known, that we 

 have taken the liberty to publish it, hoping that some of 

 our readers will become better acquainted with " Rrijjht 

 Feathers." as well as the author. — F,t>.] 



