1S90.] Recent Literature. 'JQ 



pleasurably seek to give here. "Ideas rule the world absolutely ;" but 

 they never rule more effectually or more lastingly than when they appeal 

 to the emotional nature. Sternly rational ideas on which the judgment 

 stamps the seal of approbation are necessary; but they are inert in com- 

 parison with the momentum of vivid sentiment, they move nothing, not 

 even themselves; they lack life; they lack the luxury of sentiment, of 

 enthusiasm, of inspiration, of poetry, and consequently have no kinship 

 with man's best consciousness. Therefore is is true that, given the luxu- 

 ries of life, we can dispense with its necessaries. 



Mr. Nehrling seems to have a message to deliver. If this be so, and 

 the message he brings be a true one, he will not want for hearers. If we 

 may whisper a word of suggestion, thus early in the course of his stud}', 

 it would be to keep the technicalities of the subject in the background, 

 wholly subordinated to the main plot. His forte is the life of birds, not 

 their dead bodies, still less their checkered synonyms. A very little such 

 pig-iron will be ballast enough to keep things snug and trim. A terse 

 identifiable description and one select scientific name are all the formality 

 this history needs to stand upon, for the rest let it use wings. 



With our author are the fruitful results of much personal experience, 

 thought and feeling, shapen with a living pen. We recall no other one 

 who has written so well in a foreign language. It makes us wish we 

 could follow him with equal ease and pleasure in his mother tongue. For 

 his work enjoys the distinction, perhaps singular in American ornitho- 

 logical literature, of original composition and simultaneous appearance 

 both in English and in German. This argues a faith in his audience 

 which we trust the event will justify when the publisher shall have 

 brought his enterprise to successful conclusion. • We may then return 

 to the subject. This ' preliminary notice must be scarcely more than a 

 word of encouragement, commendation and hearty welcome. Were we 

 in more critical or fastidious mood, the plates of the work might feel the 

 prick of the pen, unless we should keep in mind the price at which they 

 are offered to the public. — E. C. 



Minor Ornithological Publications. — In the last few years the Country 

 has been almost flooded by 'amateur' periodicals devoted to natural history, 

 especially to oology. Some of these are the productions of youthful col- 

 lectors whose good intentions are only equalled by their ignorance. 

 Others are issued largely as advertising mediums by dealers in specimens 

 and 'curiosities.' They contain much matter that is unreliable, owing to 

 inexperience and perhaps occasionally to dishonesty on the part of the 

 writers. There is more which relates to well-known habits of common 

 birds, aqd though extremely useful to the beginners in ornithology who 

 make up the bulk of the readers, is of no scientific importance. Among 

 all this chaff' there are nevertheless here and there items of considerable 

 interest and value which ought not to be overlooked. 



One of the best of these journals, The Sunny South Oologist, edited and 

 published by Edwin C. Davis at Gainesville, Texas, although it showed 



