^°\ f^^^ /?fce«/ Literature. 307 



and notes, of one of the most noteworthy early publications on birds, 

 and has thus not only a peculiar interest, but is full of suggestive and 

 interesting information, bearing especially upon the origin and early use 

 of many of the present technical names of birds. Of this work, the 

 translator tells us : " Turner's object in writing the present treatise is 

 fully set forth in his ' Epistola Nuncupatoria' prefixed to it. While 

 attempting to determine the principal kinds of birds named by Aristotle 

 and Pliny, he has added notes from his own experience on some species 

 which had come under his own observation, and in so doing he has 

 produced the first book on Birds which treats them in anything like a 

 modern scientific spirit and not from the medical point of view adopted 

 by nearly all his predecessors ; nor is it too much to say that almost every 

 page bears witness to a personal knowledge of the subject, which would 

 be distinctly creditable even to a modern ornithologist." 



Turner was one of the most learned men of his time. The date of his 

 birth is not given ; he graduated a B. A. from the University of Cam- 

 bridge, of which he was elected a fellow in 1530. He was a zealous 

 student of botany, and in 1538 published a work on plants, and later 

 others on the same subject, lie traveled extensively on the continent, 

 where he met and became a personal friend of Gesner, to whose ' Historia 

 Animalium ' he made contributions. He was, first of all, a religious 

 reformer, and, "his scientific work apart, nearly the whole of Turner's 

 life was spent in religious controversy." In the dedication of his book 

 on 'The History of Birds' (mentioned above) to the then Prince of 

 Wales, he says, in it "I have placed for your pleasure the Greek, German, 

 and British names side by side with the Latin"; and he proposed, under 

 certain conditions, to "bring to the light of day a further edition of this 

 little book with figures of the birds, their habits, and curative properties, 

 as well as another book on plants." 



It is hard to characterize the peculiar interest this "little book" 

 has for the present day bird student; but not least of course is the 

 antiquarian, from its curious revelations of the beginnings of modern 

 knowledge of birds, the conjectures that prevailed in place of positive 

 information, and the early application of many names now so differently 

 employed in technical nomenclature. The editor and translator, seconded 

 by the Syndics of the University Press, has opened to the general reader 

 a previously inaccessible and practically sealed book of unusual interest, 

 for which service we owe a debt of gratitude. — J. A. A. 



Recent Papers on Economic Ornithology. — In 'Birds of a Maryland 

 farm ' 1 Ur. Judd has presented us with a study of local conditions as pre- 



' Birds of a Maryland Farm, A Local Study of Economic Ornithology. By 

 Sylvester D. Judd, Ph. D., Assistant, Biological Survey. U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture. Division of Biological Survey — Bulletin No. 17, Washing- 

 ton, 1902. 8vo, pp. 116, with 17 half-tone plates and 41 text figures. 



