boa isiy vi Recent Literature. 349 
various chapters and the book will well repay a careful perusal by all con- 
cerned with bird conservation. One point is especially worthy of consider- 
ation by game commissioners, who in spite of the evidence in favor of most 
hawks and owls are still inclined to recommend their unlimited slaughter, 
along with all other vermin, on game preserves, on account of their destruc- 
tion of a certain number of game birds. Mr. Pearson cites a case in which 
such slaughter was carried on most thoroughly for the sake of protecting 
a large preserve of English Pheasants. The birds were later almost wiped 
out by disease and he says: “Is it going too far to say that the gunmen 
and trappers had over done their work? So few Hawks or Owls or foxes 
had been left to capture the birds first afflicted, that these had been per- 
mitted to associate with their kind and to pass on weakness and disease to 
their offspring until the general health tone of the whole Pheasant com- 
munity had become lowered.” All animals, as Mr. Pearson says, ‘‘ have 
their part to play in the great economy of the earth, and it is a dangerous 
experiment to upset the balance of Nature.”— W. 8. 
Henshaw and Fuertes on North American Warblers.'\— The 
interest in this publication centers about the thirty-two Warbler pictures 
in colors reproduced from paintings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes. We have 
several times had occasion to congratulate the ‘ National Geographic 
Magazine’ upon the splendid educational work that it is doing, in the 
publication of these colored pictures illustrating various branches of natural 
history, and once again we express our appreciation. The present pictures 
are larger than the former bird series, each one being half, instead of one 
third the height of the page and this of course presents the work of the artist 
to much better advantage. Mr. Fuertes has published warbler portraits 
before, notably the series in ‘ Bird-Lore’ which appeared later in Chap- 
man’s ‘ Warblers’ and those in Eaton’s ‘ Birds of New York,’ but we think 
the present figures are better than either, and they will give pleasure to 
thousands of bird students to whom the warblers are always the favorite 
group for study. Mr. H. W. Henshaw has written a descriptive text in 
which are embodied many interesting personal experiences of this veteran 
ornithologist, while the introductory pages discuss the relationship, 
migration and economic value of these interesting little birds, while frequent 
references to the publications of the U. S. Biological Survey enable the 
reader to follow up the subject at his pleasure. 
The only flaw in this admirable publication is the caption to a half tone 
illustration from Chapman’s ‘Camps and Cruises,’ which is used. to fill 
out p. 303. It depicts an interesting family of young Blue Jays under 
which has been placed, without the authority of either Mr. Henshaw or 
Mr. Fuertes, we are sure, the following inscription: ‘‘ Young Fish-Hawks 
about to Leave their Nest’ ! — W. 8. 
1 Friends of Our Forests. By Henry W. Henshaw. Illustrations by Louis Agassiz 
Fuertes. National Geographic Magazine, April, 1917. pp. 297-321. 
