436 Recent Literature. [j u u i y 



birds to a remarkable degree and the songs and call notes are usually 

 brought into the verse in a very clever manner. Poems are often remem- 

 bered where prose is forgotten and are moreover particularly attractive 

 to many persons, especially children, so that Miss Ball's book will carry 

 the message of bird study to many who would probably not otherwise 

 receive it. 



The various species are arranged in the order of spring arrival beginning 

 with the residents and winter visitants, while tables of arrival and depar- 

 ture dates are interspersed. The numerous colored plates make the work 

 an attractive picture book. Many of these are from the leaflets of the 

 National Association of Audubon Societies, and are referred to in the 

 preface as " Audubon plates " — a rather confusing term — while the 

 rest are drawn by Mr. Bruce Horsfall especially for this work. We trust 

 that Miss Ball's work will meet with the appreciation that it deserves. — 

 W. S. 



Gilmore's 'Birds of Field, Forest and Park.' — This attractively 

 gotten-up book l is intended to give the would-be nature student an intimate 

 knowledge of our wild bird life. It is distinctly popular in character and 

 covers the birds of the eastern United States as observed by the author at 

 his home in Maine, as well as in New York, New Jersey and " in the South- 

 ern States." While usually careful to mention localities the writer occa- 

 sionally forgets to tell us to which region his observations pertain, an 

 important matter in a work of such wide scope. 



Mr. Gilmore is an entertaining writer and a good observer and his 

 accounts of the habits of the birds he has personally observed are well done 

 and full of interest, and especially attractive are the chapters entitled 

 " In the Orchard " and " The Wilderness in June " where the attempt at 

 systematic arrangement of the subject matter is abandoned and he writes 

 of nature as he finds her. 



There is always a field for nature books which stimulate the interest of 

 the reader and the main text of Mr. Gilmore's book will give much pleasure 

 and information to a wide circle of readers. 



Unfortunately where he has had occasion to compile his information and 

 to write upon the wider problems of ornithology his results have not been 

 so happy — indeed the first two chapters, being largely of this character, 

 could, it seems to us, have been omitted with advantage in a work of this 

 kind. It is here that we find a number of unfortunate statements. Young 

 Grackles, for instance, do not have " spotted coats," nor does the young 

 male bird hi species in which the sexes differ in color, " resemble the father, 

 and the young female the mother; " while we cannot agree that in the 



1 Birds of Field, Forest and Park, By Albert Field Gilmore, with a Foreword by T. 

 Gilbert Pearson, Secretary of The National Association of Audubon Societies, with Illus- 

 trations by R. Bruce Hoisfall and Louis Fuertes. The Page Company. Boston, MDCCC- 

 XIX, Svo., pp. i-xii+1-318, numerous half-tone and several colored plates. $2.50 net. 



