466 Recent Literature. [o U t k 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Brewster's 'The Birds of the Cambridge Region of Massachusetts.' ' 

 — Mr. Brewster's monograph of 'The Birds of the Cambridge Region' is 

 a quarto volume of 426 pages, and forms No. IV of the 'Memoirs of the 

 Nuttall Ornithological Club.' In thoroughness of research and explicit- 

 ness of detail it fully meets the high standard naturally anticipated for 

 such a work under such authorship and auspices. The 'Cambridge 

 Region,' as here defined, is subtriangular in outline, with a width near its 

 southern boundary of about 12 miles, and a north-south extension, near 

 its western border, of about 14 miles; the hypothenuse of the triangle 

 has an approximate northwest-southeast trend of about 18 miles. It 

 includes "the entire cities or towns of Cambridge, Watertown, Belmont, 

 .... Arlington, Lexington, and practically the whole of Waltham." The 

 boundaries are thus partly natural — ■ being Charles River on the south, 

 and Stony Brook and Hobbs Brook on the southwest and west — and 

 partly artificial. As explained by the author: "This in effect has been 

 to treat of that territory (and no other) over which ornithologists and 

 collectors, living in or very near Cambridge, have been accustomed to 

 roam during excursions not exceeding a day in duration, and made directly 

 from their homes. It must be confessed that this arrangement was 

 originally dictated quite as much by sentiment as by practical or scien- 

 tific considerations; — nevertheless it has proved not unsatisfactory on 

 the whole, despite the fact that it has led to some perplexities, and perhaps 

 inconsistencies also." 



This limited area is as historic, ornithologically considered, as any 

 locality in America, possibly excepting Philadelphia and its immediate 

 environs. The seventeenth century records of Wood, Morton, and Josselyn 

 have an important significance as indicating the general ornithological 

 conditions obtaining at that early date in portions of Massachusetts imme- 

 diately adjoining the 'Cambridge Region.' It was in Cambridge that 

 Nuttall wrote his 'Manual,' where for about ten years (1823-1832) he was 

 curator of the Botanic Garden; it was evidently here also that he gathered 

 much of the original matter contained in the 'Manual.' Later (1832- 

 1840) Cambridge was the scene of much careful field work by the three 

 Cabot brothers, and Henry Bryant. "Between 1842 and 1860 they 

 [the birds of Cambridge] also received more or less attention from James 

 Russell Lowell, Thomas M. Brewer, Wilson Flagg, and various successive 

 members of the Harvard Natural History Society, while from 1861 or 



1 Memoirs of the Nuttall Ornithological Club.| — | No. IV. | — | The Birds | of 

 the|Cambridge Region|of|Massachusetts. | By William Brewster. | — |With four Plates 

 and three Maps.| — ICambridge, Mass. Published by the Club, |July, 1906. — 4to, 

 pp. 1-426, pll. i-vii. 



