1915 J Recent Literature. 507 



extensive correspondence and encouraging others to collect for him besides 

 mastering language after language even to Danish and Italian, and reading 

 all the scientific works upon which he could lay his hands. 



The community of interest between Spencer F. Baird and his elder 

 brother William, as shown in their correspondence, at once attracts the 

 sympathy of the reader, and the generosity of the older brother when he 

 found himself able to extend financial assistance to the younger to aid his 

 advance in a field which he himself had been forced to abandon, is very 

 touching. 



The correspondence with Audubon is extremely interesting, forming, 

 as it were, the connecting link between the leading figure of one epoch of 

 American Ornithology and that of the next. Also the numerous exchanges 

 of letters with John Cassin especially those of Christmas, 1853, wherein 

 they reckoned the number of years that they had been friends and the high 

 value that they placed upon this friendship! Later amid increasing cares 

 we trace Baird's career at Washington, his establishment of the Inter- 

 national Scientific Exchange, the development of the Museum and the 

 fatherly interest in the many young naturalists who made the Smithsonian 

 the centre of their activities and organized the Megatherium Club. 



Finally the development of the Fish Commission and its numerous 

 activities. But it is useless to try to present a synopsis of such a life; one 

 must read it in its entirety, and suffice it to say that every ornithologist — 

 indeed every scientific man — should read this biography. It is instructive 

 in its mass of historical details, inspiring in the example that it sets and 

 the possibilities that it opens up, and fascinating as a piece of literature. 

 The illustrations are good and well selected, and the book is in every way 

 a credit to both author and publisher. — W. S. 



Baynes' ' Wild Bird Guests.' l — When interest in the preservation of 

 wild birds first developed in this country, our efforts were almost entirely 

 directed to stopping their killing, and to keep all disturbing agencies 

 away from their haunts. Of late years however this work has advanced 

 along quite different lines and it has been shown that it is possible not only 

 to make the birds' haunts more suitable for their needs but also to attract 

 birds to places where they were almost or quite unknown before. In the 

 fore front of this movement Mr. Ernest Harold Baynes has been the most 

 conspicuous figure, and in the volume before us he tells of his methods and 

 results, placing before a larger audience the facts that are familiar to the 

 many who have heard his lectures or have been associated with him in 

 'bird club' work. 



1 Wild Bird Guests. How to Entertain Them. With Chapters on the Destruc- 

 tion of Birds, their Economic and ^Esthetic Values, Suggestions for Dealing with 

 their Enemies, and on the Organization and Management of Bird Clubs. By- 

 Ernest Harold Baynes. With 50 photogravure illustrations from photographs. 

 New York. E. P. Dutton & Company, 1915. 8vo. pp. i-xviii + 1-326. $2 

 net. 



