402 Recent Literature. [jiily 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Chapman's Handbook. ' — For many years the student of birds in 

 America received his inspiration and was guided in his earlj' studies by 

 ' Coues' Key,' and those of our ornithologists who are now nearing middle 

 age have shaped their ideas of ornithology largely upon this classic work. 

 Today however we are forced to realize that another and much larger 

 generation of bird students has grown up whose guiding star has been not 

 ' Coues' Key ' but ' Chapman's Handbook,' and the broadening of the 

 whole study, the widespread interest in the living bird as contrasted with 

 the ' skin ' is we think largely traceable to the influence of the latter work. 



Just as the success of ' Coues' Key ' called in time for a new edition so there 

 has arisen an emphatic demand for a more modern ' Chapman,' wliich 

 the author and publisher have fully met in the volume before us. 



It is still the same handy reference volume which made the first edition 

 80 popular, but with an increase of 100 pages and with more as well as 

 better illustrations. All of which make it the leading work of reference 

 on bird life in eastern North America, not only for the amateur but for the 

 professional ornithologist. 



The introduction has been entirely rewritten and as it stands today is a 

 model of concise statement, nowhere can one find so much information 

 about birds in such a small space. The chapters and .their subdivisions 

 are as follows. I. Why we should Study Birds; II. A Word to the 

 Beginner: Finding and Naming Birds; The Equipment of the Field 

 Student; Collecting Birds, their Nests and Eggs; American Ornitholog- 

 ical Societies; Current Ornithological Magazines. III. The Study of 

 Birds in Nature: The Distribution of Birds; The Migration of Birds; The 

 Voice of Birds; The Nesting Season; The Plumage of Birds; The Food 

 of Birds; General Activities of the Adult Bird. 



The author's wide field experience has enabled him to write upon these 

 subjects largely from personal knowledge which adds materially to the 

 value and interest of the essays. A most important feature moreover is 

 the addition of a series of suggestions to the student under each heading 

 and a bibliography of reliable publications dealing with subject under dis- 

 cussion, which serves as a guide to anyone who desires to pursue his studies 



» Handbook of Birds |of Eastern North America | with Introductory Chapters 

 on I the Study of Birds in Nature | By | Frank M. Chapman | Curator of Orni- 

 thology in the American Museum of Natural History | Fellow of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union | Foreign Member of the British Ornithologists' Union, 

 etc. I With full-page Plates in colors and black and white I By Louis Agassiz 

 Fuertes I and Text-cuts by Tappan Adney and Ernest Thompson Seton | Revised 

 Edition | New York and London I D. Appleton and Company I 1912. 12 vo. 

 pp. i xxix + 1—530. pll. I-XXIV, flgs. 1-136. Library Edition $3.50 net.. 

 Pocket Edition, flexible covers, $4.00 net. 



