V01 i8ot VI ] Recent Literature. 369 



interested so long as I would tell them about how birds live. ... It has, 

 therefore, seemed to me that what is needed at first is not the science of 

 ornithology, — however diluted, — but some account of the life and hab- 

 its, to arouse sympathy and interest in the living bird, neither as a target 

 nor as a producer of eggs, but as a fellow-creature whose acquaintance it 

 would be pleasant to make." 



The book, it is needless to say, is couched in terms easily understood, 

 and written in an attractive and sympathetic vein. It consists of thirty 

 short chapters, grouped under the following four major headings — 'The 

 Nestling'; 'The Bird grown up'; 'How he is made'; 'His Relations 

 with us.' Under the first is treated not only the nest and the young bird, 

 but its various changes of plumage, and how it learns to take care of 

 itself, while under the third are given some elementary lessons on the 

 structure of birds, etc. The twelve halftone and eight colored plates are 

 very creditable reproductions of photographs of mounted birds and must 

 add much to the interest and attractiveness of the book. Our only criti- 

 cism is that they are copied from rather badly stuffed specimens with 

 cheap artificial accessories, the excellence of the reproduction thus only 

 heightening the defects of the tell-tale taxidermy. They hence lack artis- 

 tic effect, which fact, perhaps, does not seriously detract from their utility 

 as illustrations.— J. A. A. 



Stone on Birds from Bogota. 1 — The small collection of birds forming 

 the basis of this paper was made by the late Dr. J. W. Detwiller, in the 

 vicinity of Bogota, in 18S8-89. It contained 76 species, and as the exact 

 localities of the specimens are indicated, it is of some importance in 

 throwing light upon the distribution of the species. One, Speotyto 

 cunicularia tollmen, is described as new. Incidentally the South Ameri- 

 can forms of Speotyto and Troglodytes are reviewed, Mr. Stone recog- 

 nizing five of the former and ten of the latter, of which eight belong to 

 the Troglodytes musculus group. Mr. Stone has also described a new- 

 Cuckoo, 2 from the island of St. Andrews, West Indies, as Coccyzus 

 abotti, nearly allied to C. minor, of which species it is apparently an 

 insular form. — J. A. A. 



Chapman on New Birds from Venezuela. 3 — A small collection of 

 birds received recently at the American Museum of Natural History 



1 On a Collection of Birds from the Vicinity of Bogota, with a Review of 

 the South American species of Speotyto and Troglodytes. By Witmer Stone. 

 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1S99, pp. 3° 2 -3 x 3- 



2 A New Species of Coccyzus from St. Andrews. By Witmer Stone. Ibid., 

 p. 301. 



3 Descriptions of Five Apparently New Birds from Venezuela. By Frank 

 M. Chapman. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. XII, 1899, pp. i53-!5 6 - 

 August 5, 1S99. 



