94 Recent Literature. [jan^ 



Finley's interesting book is limited to about two dozen species of American 

 birds, practically all of them western, with sometimes eastern names. 

 Its scope and character is thus stated by the author: "In this book no 

 attempt has been made to include all the different bird families, but a 

 series of representative birds from the hummingbird to the eagle has been 

 selected. Each chapter represents a close and continued study with 

 camera and notebook at the home of some bird or group of birds, — a true 

 life history of each species. It is the bird as a live creature, its real wild 

 personality and character, that I have tried to portray." The twenty 

 chapters treat of about twenty-five species, each of which is illustrated 

 by a series of excellent photographs of the living bird, its nest, eggs and 

 young, the latter often at several different stages of growth. Although 

 localities and dates are usually omitted, the stories are detailed and pleas- 

 antly written, and give a vast amount of information about the ways of 

 life and individualities of the species here so faithfully and sympathetic- 

 ally portrayed and described. There is also entire absence of technicalities 

 in the treatment, which lapses at times into loose statements hardly to 

 be looked for in a book naturally expected to be scientifically accurate 

 as well as popular, in the sense of being non-technical, as where the author 

 tells his readers: "But a list of birds that every one should know could 

 not be complete without our two commonest studies in blue, the Bluebird 

 (Sialia sialis) and the Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata). In all our woods, 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, one may find these two, one gentle and 

 friendly, the other bold, boisterous, and untrustful." And this despite 

 the fact that neither of these species is found nearer the Pacific coast than 

 the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains! The "young Blue Jays" 

 shown in the accompanying illustrations are Aphelocoma californica, the 

 California Jay, and the Bluebirds are evidently the Western Bluebird, 

 Sialia mexicana occidentalis. Such lapses from the truth, whether in- 

 tentional or otherwise, are apt to leave with the reader who knows better, 

 a rather unpleasant impression. — J. A. A. 



Ihering's Birds of Brazil. ^ — This is the first of a series of volumes on 

 the Fauna of Brazil, in which will be given a synopsis of the present knowl- 

 edge of the animals of this great covmtry, to be published by the Museu 

 Paulista. The present volume is an annotated Check-List of the birds, 

 so far as known to the authors, and follows the classification and nomen- 

 clature of the British Museum 'Hand-list' and 'Catalogue of Birds.' 

 Although the rule of priority is recognized as mandatory, and the tenth 

 edition of the ' Systema Nat rse' of Linnaeus (1758) is regarded as the 



I Catalogos | da ! Fauna Brazileira | Editados pelo | Museu Paulista | S. Paulo — 

 Brazil I — I Vol. I | As Aves do Brazil. | Pelo Prof. Dr. Hermann von Ihering | 

 Director do Museu Paulista | e | Rodolplio von Ihering | Gustos do Museu Paulista ! 

 [vignette] Sao Paulo | Typographia do Diario Official | 1907 — 8vo, pp. xxxviii -I- 

 485, and 2 maps, + 3 leaves = 2 title pages and contents. 



