1SS5.] Recent Literature. QI 



particular respecting its breeding, when it begins to build its nest, the 

 materials it uses for the purpose, the number of eggs it lavs, the variation 

 in their color, size and shape, — all these particulars are the real history 

 of a bird; and in the account of each species of British birds I endeavour 

 to give as many of them as possible." The Introduction to Volume II con- 

 tains a paper of 24 pages 'On the Protective Colour of Eggs,' by Mr. 

 Henry Dixon, which will be noticed at length in some future number of 

 'The Auk.' 



Mr. Seebohm's work abounds in passages which invite comment, but 

 lack of space forbids a more extended notice. — J. A. A. 



Ingersoll's 'Country Cousins.'* — This well-written work, intended to 

 entertain and assist 'those who take delight in out-door studies,' consists 

 of twenty-one articles, devoted to a variety of subjects, reprinted from the 

 various periodicals in which they originally appeared. Birds come in for 

 a fair share of notice, mainly in the chapters entitled 'A Wet Day with the 

 Birds' (pp. 2130), 'Birds of the Brookside' (pp. 39-48), and 'A Chat about 

 Bob White' (pp. 175-181). The book as a whole is much better written, 

 both as regards truthfulness and style, than popular works on natural his- 

 tory often are, the writer for the most part contenting himself with sub- 

 jects with which he is personally familiar, and in which he is especially 

 interested. He therefore writes intelligently, largely from original obser- 

 vation, and in the main correctly, but there are here and there lapses 

 which a little more care would have saved. This is not often the case in 

 the ornithological portions of the work, but a pleasantly written account, 

 several pages in length, of the Long-billed Water Thrush {Siurus mota- 

 cilla) is marred at its close by the statement, "This is a northern bird." 

 The Spotted Sandpiper, the three species of Siuri, and the Quail (Ortyx 

 virginicuius) are the species accorded most attention. — J. A. A. 



Langille's 'Our Birds in their Haunts : A Popular Treatise on the Birds 

 of Eastern North America. 'f — Several months have now elapsed since 

 the appearance of this long-promised book, on which the author has been 

 at work, ha tells us, for the past twelve years. It is a compact volume of 

 624 p.iges, sparselv illustrated by woodcuts, most of which are borrowed 

 from the second edition of Coues's 'Key.' Its scope will appear from the 

 opening sentence of the preface : •■The first aim of this work is to render 

 as popular and attractive as possible, as well as to bring within a small 

 compass, the sum total of the bird-life of Eastern North America." Had 



* Country Cousins : Short Studies in the Natural History of the United States. By 

 Ernest Ingersoll, Author of 'Friends Worth Knowing,' 'Knocking Round the Rockies,' 

 The Ice Queen,' etc. Illustrated. New York : Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, 

 1884. 8vo. pp. 252. Piates, and woodcuts in the text. 



t Our Birds in their Haunts : a Popular Treatise on the Birds of Eastern North 

 America. By. Rev. J. Hibbert Langille, M. A. Boston : S. E. Cassino & Company 

 1884. 8vo. pp. 624, woodcuts in the text. 



