^°|y^"] Recent Literature. 285 



attractive personality of Mr. Minot liiniselt. Most of the biographies 

 relate to his own experience or impressions, and in the main they are 

 exceedingly well done, for, in addition to the essentials of good composi- 

 tion . . . they are not wanting in touches of a somewhat quaint humor 

 and of unmistakably sincere and elevated sentiment. The author had a 

 clear head, a true heart, and a well defined purpose, combined with an 

 amount of literary taste and ability very rare in one so young. lie was 

 deeply in earnest, full of warm -^et reverent love of nature, whollv uncon- 

 scious of, or indifferent to, certain conventional methods of investigation 

 and expression, vet in the main careful in observation, temperate of 

 statement, and singularly logical and dispassionate in argument." 



As Mr. Brewster further states, Mr. Minot's book "was not, when it first 

 appeared, either a comprehensive or an exhaustive treatise, and to attempt 

 to make it so now, when the sum of knowledge of New England orni- 

 thology is at least four-fold what it was in 1877, would tend to obscure, 

 if not to destroy, the original character of the book, besides swelling its 

 bulk to far beyond the limits of desirability." With a proper appreciation 

 of his editorial functions in a case like the present, Mr. Brewster left the 

 original text practically intact, his own additions being made in foot- 

 notes distinguished by his initials. The notes and additions given by 

 Mr. Minot in an Appendix have been interpolated in the body of the 

 work as footnotes to the matter to which they relate; a few transposi- 

 tions of words and sentences have been made, in accordance with mar- 

 ginal notes in Mr. Minot's personal copy of the work, and there have 

 been slight emendations of punctuation. The principal changes beyond 

 this have been to modernize the technical names by substituting those 

 of the A. O. U. Check-List for those originally used, where they were 

 different. 



Mr. Brewster's own notes relate mainly to the distribution of the species, 

 and are uniformly supplied for all of the species treated, and are indepen- 

 dent of the original text rather than a revision of Mr. Minot's often very 

 inadequate treatment of this part of the subject. This, of course, gives us 

 an annotated list of the Land-Birds and Game-Birds of New England, so 

 far as the latter were covered in the original work, giving their manner 

 of occurrence, so far as at present known, throughout New England. As 

 no higher authority could have been selected for the task, these annota- 

 tions not only greatly increase the value of the book, but give in a con- 

 densed form a summary of the present knowledge of the distribution, 

 migi-ation seasons, and breeding ranges of New England birds, from the 

 Thrushes to the Grall;e, plus two species — the Snipe and the Woodcock 

 — of the latter. Corrections of the comparatively few misstatements in 

 the text are also made in footnotes. Section G of the Appendix, forming 

 pages 466-480, is also by Mr. Brewster, and treats chiefly of species added 

 to the New England list since the publication of the first edition of the 

 work — some 28 in number. This important supplemental matter gives 

 a detailed biography of Bicknell's Thrush ; a page is given to the Palm 



