550 Recently published Oniithuloyical IVurks. 



its excellence, and is even more interesting than usual, as it 

 contains the critical races of Creepers, Tits, and so forth. 

 An instance in point is the difference of habits between the 

 Marsh- and Willow-Tits, where we quite atrree with the 

 author that the latter in all probability excavates its own 

 nesting-hole and utters a peculiar note. 



The plates arc very good and the imjjrcssions clear, the 

 figures of the eggs of Molotlirus cabanisi, Cisticola cisticola 

 Sylvia melanocephala, Acrocephalus schamobamus, A. arun- 

 dinaceus, Tutunas fuscus, and I^umenius jihceopus being 

 admirable. The larger eggs are the least successful and 

 come out rather flat-looking. The variety of the egg of 

 the Goldcrest with a white ground is not included, and the 

 colour in the case of the (Grasshopper Warbler is scarcely 

 pink enough, liut our only real objection is to the number 

 of very similar eggs figured of the Redshank, Black-tailed 

 Godwit, Noddy, and Adriatic Gull, or — in a lesser degree — 

 to the abseuce of a representation of a boldly marked specimen 

 of the Stone-Curlew, such :is is not uncommon. 



()6. Kni(jlit on the Bwds of Muine. 



[The Birds of Maine, with Key to und Description of the various 

 Species known to occur or to have occurred in the State, an Account of 

 their Distribution and jNli^ration, showinji' their relative abundance in 

 the various Counties of the State as well as other ref^ions, and Contribu- 

 tions to their Life-histories. By Ora Willis Knight, M.S. Bangor, 

 Maine : 1908. 1 vol. 8vo. (i93 pp.] 



The love of birds is far spread in America, and most of 

 the enlightened States of the East and West have Manuals 

 of their native species. Here we find a good solid volume 

 on the Birds of Maine, which will be also serviceable for the 

 dwellers in Lower Canada, which the State of Maine so 

 closely adjoins. A List of the Birds of Maine was published 

 some years ago, and, as will be seen by the * Bibliography ' 

 in the present volume, a large number of books and memoirs 

 refer more or less, to the subject. But the present publica- 

 liou is much more than a List. It is, in fact, a complete 

 treatise on the Ornis of the State, containing descriptions 

 of all the species, keys to assist in their identification, and 



