" 5912 J Recent Literature. 547 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Barrows' Michigan Bird Life.' — A comparison of Cook's 'Birds of 

 Michigan' published by the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station in 

 1893 and the present special bulletin of the state Agricultural College, 

 furnishes a good illustration of the important position that the study and 

 preservation of our native birds have attained during the past two decades. 

 Where twenty years ago a pamphlet of 148 pages fulfilled the demand, the 

 state today feels fully justified in the issue of this portly volume of 822 pages 

 with 70 plates and 152 figures. 



Prof. Barrows is to be congratulated upon the manner in which he has 

 assembled his materials, and in his happy treatment of the subjects dis- 

 cussed in the introduction, especially ' migration ' and ' how to study birds.' 

 We heartily agree with him too when he says " The great importance of 

 wild birds to the agriculturist may be readily conceded. Nevertheless it 

 seems very desirable, at this time, that we should recognize the fact that 

 all the wikl things of our country, birds, mammals, insects, plants, have a 

 right to protection, preservation, recognition, entirely apart from their 

 economic status, using that word to indicate merely the amount of good or 

 harm in dollars and cents which can be attributed to them. The fox, the 

 Crow, the Kingfisher, the muskrat, may or may not, in the long run, be 

 ' more beneficial than harmful,' yet each in its own way has a scientific, 

 an aesthetic, a human value, which cannot be estimated in dollars and cents 

 and which should forever protect him from extreme persecution, and above 

 all from final extinction." 



Our author's attitude toward collecting specimens moreover seems 

 admirably expressed. While he beheves in careful restriction in the grant- 

 ing of permits he says: "A moment's thought will convince anyone that the 

 student who searches the woods carefully for a bird which he has never 

 seen, who follows up each unknown call or song, watches with care each 

 doubtful and illusive form which suggests the bird desired, and finally, 

 perhaps after hundreds of disappointments, kills a specimen of the much 

 coveted species and measures, preserves and labels it, has gained a knowl- 

 edge of the appearance, habits, notes, size and structure of this species 

 which could be obtained in no other possible way. Not only has he gained 



1 Michigan Bird Life 1 A List of all the Bird Species known to occur on the 

 State together with | an outline of their Classiflcation and an account of the I 

 Life History of Each Species, with special reference to its | Relation to Agricultiire. 

 With Seventy Full-page Plates 1 and One Hundred and Fifty-two Text Figures | 

 By I Walter Bradford Barrows, S. B., | Professor of Zoology and Physiology and 1 

 Curator of the General Museum I Special Bulletin | of the | Department of ZoOlogy 

 and Physiology | of the | Michigan Agricultiu-al College 1 Pubhshed by the Michi- 

 gan Agricultural College I 1912 — 8vo. pp. 822, 70 plates 152 text figures — Sold 

 at the College. 45 cts. paper, 60 cts. cloth; transportation 35 cts. extra, must be 

 prepaid. 



