Q2 Recent Literature. [January 



the title of the work been restricted to 'Our Birds in their Haunts', and 

 had the author contented himself with biographical sketches of the birds 

 with which he was personally familiar, he would have escaped numerous 

 embarassments, and his book would have had a charm which has been 

 largely forfeited by reason of its more pretentious scope. 



A third of the preface, and occasional paragraphs throughout the volume, 

 are devoted to the author's notions of the religious aspects of ornithology, 

 and he often works into the narrative what he is pleased to consider evi- 

 dences of a 'Creator', or of 'design', in the structure or habits of birds. 

 Without so much as a show of either logic or modesty, he attacks the 

 theory of migration which was proposed, independently, by Wallace 

 of England and Palmen of Finland, and bluntly announces his conclusion 

 that the phenomena of migration are "caused by the laws of instinct, sup- 

 erintended by an Infinite Intelligence." Seemingly ignorant of the 

 laws of hereditary habit, he delights in calling upon the supernatural 

 for the explanation of very simple facts. However gratifying this may be 

 to his brother Divines, it is certainly out of place in 'A Popular Treatise 

 on the Birds of Eastern North America.' 



In the preface the author says that he has incorporated in his book "a 

 good deal of direct information from Hudson's Bay, by means of an excel- 

 lent correspondent. This last feature of original investigation should 

 specially commend the work to the scientist." The book was read from 

 beginning to end, and every i-ecord from the above source was carefully 

 noted. The task completed, just a dozen species were found, and every 

 one of these has been known from Hudson's Bay for at least thirty-five 

 years, and several for a much longer period ! From a clerical standpoint, 

 the mention of a dozen birds from a given locality where they have been 

 known for nearly half a century maybe regarded as "a good deal of direct 

 information," but the reviewer, who looks at the matter from an ornitho- 

 logical standpoint, is hardly prepared to admit, in consideration of the 

 total absence of a new fact of any kind, that "this last feature of original 

 investigation should specially commend the work to the scientist." 



The arrangement of the subject matter is novel and not unattractive. 

 The Chapters are entitled: 'Hoar Frost'; 'Snowed In'; 'Open Winter'; 

 'Below Zero'; 'A January Thaw'; 'Voices of Spring'; 'A Bluff and the 

 Cat-tails'; 'Along the Creek'; 'Early April and the Phcebe'; 'Later in 

 April'; 'Late in April'; 'The Third of May' ; 'The Swamp, The Field, 

 and The Lake'; 'The Tenth and Eleventh of May' ; 'Peewees and the 

 Hooded Warbler' ; 'Birds around the House'; 'The First Days of June' ; 

 'Georgian Bay'; 'Tenting on the Niagara'; 'Bird-life in Nova Scotia'; 

 'New Jersey Coast and the Osprey' ; 'Autumnal Days'; 'Reminiscences'; 

 'Gleanings'. Under each of these headings a number of species are dis- 

 posed of. There is a fair index, but no table of contents. 



The technical descriptions are woven into the narrative (which is al- 

 ways a mistake) and in most cases are insufficient to admit of positive 

 identification except in strongly marked species. The most striking de- 

 fect in the book — a defect which appears with provoking frequency, and 



