^°!s^7^^] Recent Literature. 4I3 



camera to a tree and focusing for a close range picture on a nest bulging 

 with young Robins, I noticed them disgorging cherrj stones, one of which 

 dropped on the side of the nest, and rolled back inside. The parent birds 

 almost universally remove all excrement from the nest, but it was evident 

 that they did not trouble themselves about removing the clean cherry 

 stones, and on examination of several nests of the Robin, Wood Robin, 

 and Catbird, I found as usual that they each contained from ten to fifteen 

 stones, but, as I had never specially noted before, were perfectly clean, 

 and must have been disgorged in all cases. 



I concluded, therefore, that nature has only provided the small bird with 

 this means of getting rid of the stone, which is too large to pass beyond 

 the cavity of the stomach. I only wonder that I never thought of it before, 

 for during cherry season, in nearly every old nest, at least of the varieties 

 mentioned, will be found a clean little pile of cherry stones. — Wm. L. 

 Baily, Ardmore, Pa. 



Birds' Tongues in Pictures. — During this spring I have had especial 

 opportunity to study song birds (Vireos, Warblers, House Wren, Catbird, 

 Sparrows, Crackles, Orioles),' and one point of interest which I have 

 determined to my satisfaction is that from a distance of a few feet, with a 

 strong opera glass, a bird's tongue caimot be seen between the open 

 mandibles when singing. In almost all drawings or paintings of singing 

 birds one will find the elevated tongue shown clearly. The musical 

 instrument of a bird is not its tongue, as almost every one knows ; the 

 sounds and modulations are produced in the throat and therefore why 

 should the tongue be expected to show (except, perhaps, as a modulator). 



To cut the tongue out of a picture of a singing bird detracts irom it 

 and looks exceedingly strange, solely because we are used to seeing it so 

 in likenesses, but not in life — but the portrait nevertheless becomes true 

 to nature. — Reginald Heber Howe, Jr., Long-wood, Mass. 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Citizen Bird." — ' Citizen Bird ' is a unique contribution to the literature 

 of Ornithology. It addresses an audience which ornithologists had 

 previously neglected and does it in so attractive a manner that the 

 reader's attention is held from cover to cover. With perhaps no desire 



^ I had no opportunity of observing Thrushes, except the Robin. 



' Citizen Bird | Scenes from Bird-Life in Plain | English for Beginners | By 

 Mabel Osgood Wright | And | Elliott Coues | With one hundred and eleven 

 Illustrations [ By Louis Agassiz Fuertes | New York | The Macmillan 

 Company | London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd. | 1S97 | All rights reserved | 

 i2mo. pp. xiv + 430. Engraved half-tones in text, iii. (Price, $1.50.) 



