Vo1 'h>19 XVI ] Recent Literature. 127 



of the intruder. Another Cowbird M . badius makes a nest of its own and 

 rears its own young. 



Members of the Audubon Society will be pleased to know that in Argen- 

 tina there are game laws and closed seasons, and that a permit is necessary 

 in order to collect specimens, while the collector will rejoice to learn that 

 officials are most courteous and obliging, and that the necessary permit 

 was secured in a few hours which included a railway journey to the nearest 

 city. 



Mr. Miller's book is one that we can heartily recommend to the general 

 reader who wishes to know something of South America, from the everyday 

 experience of the traveller, both in the long settled districts and in the 

 wilderness, while it should be in the library of every ornithologist and 

 mammalogist. The day is past when the student of this or that branch 

 of natural science can limit his reading to technical monographs. He must 

 know something of the animal in its natural surroundings in order to appre- 

 ciate the relationship between color and background, adaptation and 

 environment; and to enable him to extend his studies beyond the mere 

 description of a new species based on a museum specimen. And as a 

 contribution to this field of literature Mr. Miller's book holds an important 

 place. 



We regret that there is no index, as it is difficult to find again some para- 

 graph that deals with a certain species in which we may be interested, and 

 the utility of the volume is impaired to that extent. It is also regrettable 

 that the author has seen fit to make use of the names of certain familiar 

 North American birds — such as Red-headed Woodpecker and White- 

 throated Sparrow — for South American species which are only remotely 

 related to them, as in spite of the citation of the correct technical names 

 many popular readers will imagine that these familiar birds occur in 

 South America as migrants. In the ' Contents ' there seems to be an error 

 of some kind in dividing the book into parts. Part one, headed "Colom- 

 bia," includes nine chapters all devoted to that country, but part two, 

 headed "Venezuela," contains seventeen chapters only two of which have 

 anything to do with this republic. This however is a trifling matter. The 

 typography and general appearance of the volume from the standpoint 

 of the bookmaker are excellent. — W. S. 



Van Oort's Birds of the Netherlands. 1 — We are in receipt of parts I 

 and II of an important illustrated work on the birds of Holland by the well 

 known ornithologist, Dr. E. D. Van Oort, Director of the Natural History 

 Museum at Leiden. From a prospectus by the author and the publisher, 



1 Ornithologica Neerlandica|de |Vogels van Nederland]door|Dr. E. D. Van Oort,| Directeur 

 van 's Rijks Museum van Naturli.jke Historie | te Leiden I Met ongeveer vierhonderd gek- 

 leurde Platen |'s Gravenhage [ Martinus Nijhoff. [Lange Voorhout, The Hague, Holland.] 

 Royal quarto, Part I, pp. 1-24, plates 1-10; part II, pp. 25-56, plates 11-20. [1918]. 

 Price, 12.50 Gld. per part. 



