1920 J Recent Literature. 4:73 



Chen is not considered separable from Anser, nor Olor from Cygnus. Our 

 Redhead, moreover, is regarded as a subspecies of Nyroca ferina, and 

 our Green-winged Teal a subspecies of Netlion rrecca. While we person- 

 ally approve some of the generic reductions we do not think that the 

 facts warrant these subspecific references. The reference of all the forms 

 of Green Heron as subspecies of the South American Butorides striatus 

 also seems unwarranted. Under this species we notice two new forms: 

 B. s. degans (p. 1251), Seychelles; and B. s. moluccarum (p. 1251), Mo- 

 luccas. 



Increased cost of printing necessitates an increase in the price of the 

 work of eight marks per part. — W. S. 



Chapman's 'What Bird is That?' 1 — In these days when almost every 

 other person one meets is a bird student, there is a constant demand for 

 bird books especially those that present the subject in a novel manner. 

 Such a work is the latest of Dr. Chapman's ornithological textbooks 

 entitled 'What Bird is That?' which answers the question presented in 

 its title in a most satisfactory manner. 



Instead of the usual analytical key we find at the beginning of the vol- 

 ume little colored pictures of all the land birds of the Eastern United 

 States. They are represented od stands and branches as mounted mus- 

 eum specimens, arranged on the shelves of a case, or series of cases, and are 

 grouped according to season, so that in cases 1 and 2 we find all of the 

 winter birds of the region, in cases 5 and 6 the early spring migrants and 

 so on. Having found our bird among the colored figures we turn to the 

 main text which covers the 300 species of the Eastern States and find a 

 short description with dates of occurrence at several localities, taken from 

 the author's well-known 'Handbook,' and a paragraph covering the more 

 striking habits of the species, and its nesting. 



The book is an elaboration of the plan, first adopted, we believe, by Dr. 

 Chapman, in the American Museum of Natural History, of exhibiting in 

 one case the birds present about the immediate neighborhood and chang- 

 ing the specimens from month to month as the winter birds depart and 

 the migrants arrive from the south. This narrows down the task of iden- 

 tification to the species most likely to be seen at the time and eliminates 

 many confusing possibilities. 



The artist Mr. E. J. Sawyer is to be congratulated upon the accuracy 

 of his figures for in spite of their small size — there are sometimes over 40 

 on a page — he has presented characteristic poses for the most part, while 

 no important detail of color seems to have been overlooked. 



x What Bird Is That? A Pocket Museum of the Land Birds of the Eastern 

 United States arranged according to Season. By Frank M. Chapman. Curator 

 of Birds in the American Museum of Natural History and Editor of 'Bird-Lore.' 

 With 301 Birds in Color, by Edmund J. Sawyer. D. Appleton and Company, 

 New York and London, 1920. 12mo., pp. i-xxvi, 1-144, 8 color plates. Price 

 $1.25 net. 



