Vol. XIIT r> i T u ^ 



,8qc J Kecent /.tferature. ^7 



a competent observer, but quite capable of imparting to his readers the 

 many bits of bird lore he gathers with so much zest from wood and 

 field. The book properly closes with a good index. 



Mr. Parkhurst's book ' is much in the same vein, but rather more 

 methodical in plan. Mr. Parkhurst's field is Central Park, New York 

 City, and his book is "an informal diary of a year's observations " made 

 chiefly "in that small section known as 'The Ramble' covering only 

 about one-sixteenth of a square mile." The "observations," however, 

 form really but a small part of the book, since they are made as it were 

 the thread upon which he hangs an extensive array of general facts about 

 bird life, such as would be most likely to interest the inexperienced but 

 eager student of birds in their haunts. We find him rarely tripping in 

 his general statements, while his observations on Central Park birds show 

 him to be a careful field student, whose pleasantly told experiences must 

 entice many of our city folk, who feel a longing for contact with living 

 nature, to share his rambles. His book opens with a 'Prelude,' followed 

 by chapters which bear simply the names of the months of the year, from 

 January to December. It concludes with a ' Postlude ' and an excellent 

 index. The 'Postlude' gives a list of the 94 species met with, as a 

 summary of his year's observations, which contain many facts of interest 

 to ornithologists as well as to the lay reader. His style is attractive, and 

 he has a way of 'putting things' that prevents his pages from becoming, 

 monotonous, as might easily prove the case with such a subject. 



A feature of special interest to ornithologists is the illustrations, since 

 they afford an indication of the possibilities of photography as a means 

 of illustration in bird books. They are nicely executed 'process' plates, 

 made from photographs of stuffed birds, with appropriate natural sur- 

 roundings, the birds being from specimens in the 'Local Collection ' of 

 birds in the American Museum of Natural History; the pieces were 

 designed and photographed by Mr. John Rowley, Jr., Chief of the Depart- 

 ment of Taxidermy at the Museum. — J. A. A. 



'The Birds About Us.'^ — This is the latest of Dr. Abbott's charmingly 

 written books on popular Natural History. In the present volume it has 

 been the author's aim to treat briefly in systematic order of the more 

 common birds of the United States — more especially of the Delaware 

 Valley. The species are not treated under separate headings but we pass 

 directly from one to another, ten to twenty being considered in each 

 chapter. The characteristic habits of each bird are set forth in the 



' The Birds' Calendar | By | H. E. Parkhurst | ....[= 2 lines from' 

 Wordsworth] Illustrated | New York | Charles Scribner's Sons | 1894. i2mo., 

 pp. viii + 351, with 24 full-page process plates. 



* The Birds About Us. By Charles Conrad Abbott, M. D. Philadelphia : 

 J. B. Lippincott Company, 1895. i2mo., pp. 288. 



