92 Recent Literature. ["^ 



whose extirpation, so far as the Orkneys is concerned, was compassed in 

 1 813 by Bullock. 



In the Transactions of the Edinburgh Field Naturalists and Micro- 

 scopical Society, Mr. Symington Grieve brings the history of the Great 

 Auk down to the end of July, 189S, recording the further discovery of 

 bones in kitchen middings on the coasts of Iceland and Denmark. Still 

 more interesting, however, was the finding of a hollow cast of an egg of 

 the Great Auk, determined as such by Prof. Steenstrup, in a deposit 

 of the sub-glacial period in the southern part of Sweden, to the northeast 

 of Falsterbo, by members of the Swedish Geological Survey. — F. A. L. 



Stickney and Hoffmann's 'Bird World.' 1 — This book is designed for use 

 as a school reader for intermediate grades. It contains some seventy 

 odd chapters most of which treat briefly of the commoner birds while 

 others deal with various phases of bird-life or bird structure; thus there 

 are chapters on 'The Coming of the Birds,' 'Bird Homes,' 'How Young 

 Birds Get Fed,' ' Food of Birds,' 'About Birds' toes,' • Birds' Bills,' etc. 

 The material has been carefully selected and seems well adapted to 

 interest children in bird-study. 



The author has done wisely in securing the cooperation of a practi- 

 cal ornithologist and Mr. Hoffmann's name on the title page of her 

 work is a guarantee of its freedom from serious errors. In two or three 

 instances, however, more careful revision would have added to the 

 accuracy of the author's statements. For example, on p. 22, feathers 

 are said to grow on the toes of the Grouse; on p. 103 birds are stated to 

 moult their feathers "one from one side, then one from the other," 

 while the unqualified assertion that " Parrots hang themselves up at 

 night by their beaks" requires considerable modification, and, as a matter 

 of fact, the name 'Candelita' is not applied to the Redstart in the West 

 Indian Islands, outside of Cuba. 



The book is profusely and well illustrated by ten full-page drawings 

 by "Mr. Thompson, eight half-tone color photographs of mounted birds, 

 pen and ink outlines of birds' wings, bills, feet, tails, etc., cuts from 

 the publications -of the Department of Agriculture, and other illustra- 

 tions from ' The Osprey,' including several drawings by Mr. Fuertes. 



An appendix gives a color key to fifty common birds, and lists of com- 

 moner birds grouped according to their local distribution, and whether 

 beneficial or injurious, etc. — F. M. C. 



Publications Received. — Bangs, Outram. On some Birds from the 

 Sierra Madra de Santa Marta, Colombia. (Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. XII, 

 1898, pp. 171-182.) 



1 Bird World | A Bird Book for Children | By | J. H. Stickney | Assisted by 

 I Ralph Hoffmann | — | Boston, U. S. A. | Ginn & Company, Publishers | 

 The Athenaeum Press | 1898 | 12 mo., pp. vi-f-214. Numerous illustrations. 

 Price, 70 cents. 



