Vol.^XXJ Recent Literature. 23 1 



but a popular account prepared expressly to interest the general reader. 

 His observations are, however, interesting and valuable to the ornitholo- 

 gist. All of the principal species are passed in review, some of them 

 briefly, while others are noticed at some length. The six half-tone plates 

 illustrate chiefly the nesting habits of the Noddy and Sooty Terns, 

 although two are devoted to the Fishhawk. — J. A. A. 



Mrs. Wheelock's ' Nestlings of Forest and Marsh.' 1 — This pleasantly 

 written book "claims to be as accurate as careful observation in the field, 

 with and without a glass, can make it," and has been written from the 

 author's own notes "gleaned during several 3'ears of study of the nesting 

 habits of our familiar birds, and some not quite so well known." The 

 observations here recorded appear to have been made chiefly in the lake 

 shore region near Chicago, and include studies of the nesting habits of 

 the Meadowlark, Bluebird, Red-winged Blackbird, Yellow-headed Black- 

 bird, Robin, Crow, Phoibe, Wood Pewee, Baltimore Oriole, Chickadee, 

 Marsh Wrens, Sora Rail, Spotted Sandpiper, Killdeer Plover, Bob-white, 

 Woodpeckers, Swallows, Blue Jay, etc. Mrs. Wheelock is evidently an 

 enthusiastic and painstaking observer, and has managed to record the 

 ways and motives of her feathered neighbors with a minuteness that sug- 

 gests here and there the aid of a helpful imagination. The numerous 

 half-tone illustrations of nests and nestlings add greatly to the realism of 

 her graphically related experiences in the field, and combine with the 

 text to render her book especiallj' attractive as a popular contribution to 

 the life-histories of some of our commoner birds. — J. A. A. 



Proceedings of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club.^ — The second 

 number of ' Cassinia ' '■' consists of the ' Abstract of Proceedings' of the 

 Club for the year 1902, preceded by the principal papers read before the 

 Club during the year. The frontispiece is a portrait of Edward Harris, 

 illustrating a biographical sketch by George Spencer Trotter, of this 

 friend and patron of science in the early days of American ornithology. 

 He was especially a friend of Audubon, accompanying him on his tour 

 through the South Atlantic and Gulf States in 1S37, and on his Missouri 

 River Expedition in 1843. Although he published little, he appears to 

 have played an important part in the early history of ornithological work 

 in this country. He was born at Moorestown, N. J., Sept. 6, 1799, where 

 he died in 1863. He is commemorated in ornithological literature in the 

 names of several North American birds named in his honor by Audubon, 

 as Picus harrissi, Falco harrisi, Harris's Sparrow, etc. 



1 Nestlings | of j Forest and Marsh | By | Irene Grosvenor Wheelock | 

 [Vignette] With Twelve Full-Page Photogravures and many Illustrations in 

 the I text from Original Photographs from Nature by | Harry B. Wheelock 

 I Chicago I A. C. McClurg & Co. | 1902 — lamo, pp. 257. 



^ Cassinia : A Bird Annual. Proceedings of the Delaware Valley Orni- 

 thological Club of Philadelphia, No. VI, 1902. Roy. Svo, pp. 66. Feb. 1903. 



