VoLXIIl Recent Liferatiire. 283 



would meet their wants."' So writes Mr. Chapman in his preface. Those 

 Avhose experience has likewise placed them in toucii with both the tech- 

 nical and popular sides of bird study, will agree that this purpose has 

 been most happily achieved. The conveniently sub-divided chapters of 

 the introduction, brief as they are, abound in helpful suggestions to the 

 student. Those who take an esthetic delight only in bird life may here 

 learn how best to study birds out of doors, those of more mechanic turn, 

 how to form collections and prosecute the study along approved scientific 

 lines. An interesting feature in this connection is a series of chronolog- 

 ical lists showing the migrating and nesting times of birds in the vicinity 

 of New York City. 



The more svstematic part of the work begins with a key to orders and 

 families, which proceeds by simple definitions and appropriate illustra- 

 tions in the text. This, while admirably suited to its immediate purpose, 

 will incidentally convey to the uninitiated something of the meaning of 

 classification in general, and of the fundamental lines of division which 

 underlie the commonly accepted distinctions of ' tribes ' and ' kinds.' 

 The spacious keys beyond are models of their kind, and evidence a great 

 amount of painstaking and conscientious care. Nor has their usefulness 

 been limited bv designing them for spring males alone ; females and 

 immature birds are included. 



The aim of the author to employ throughout the simplest English pos- 

 sible to the special subject has been agreeably realized. The descriptions, 

 for their purpose, lose nothing of definiteness from the ruling absence of 

 technical terms. Much has been done to render less shadowy the mazy 

 region of female and immature plumages, where many a beginner, having 

 put his hand eagerly to the plow, has turned back. 



No attempt has been made to meet the problem of nestling plumages, 

 but this scarcely explains why noteworthy markings on certain migrating 

 autumn birds are left unnoticed. We may instance the white-bordered 

 inner secondaries of the White-breasted Swallow, the peculiar rust^^-backed 

 state of the Wood Pewee. the buffy spotting in the scapular and covertal 

 regions seen in the Hylocichhv. 



Following the descriptions, range and characters of nest and eggs are 

 set forth as fullv as brief, general statements will permit. The breeding 

 ranges and the winter habitats are specially indicated, as far as known,— a 

 commendable feature. While it may seem ungracious to ask for more 

 where so much is given, we think that in the matter of breeding range, 

 not quite enough allowance has been made in the case of some species for 

 their southward extension along the Alleghanies. The student who reads 

 of the Magnolia and Black-throated Blue Warblers, that their general 

 breeding range extends from, say, northern New England, southward, 

 along the crests of the Alleghanies, would scarcely be prepared to find 

 both species common summer birds along valleys and lower slopes in the 

 Catskills or in the plateau region of Pennsylvania. With the Canadian 

 Warbler the ca.se is similar, and the Black-poll and Yellow-rumped 



