90 Recent Literature. [jan 



the whole with many photographs from nature and a number of the groups 

 themselves." 



The book is divided into eight parts, as follows: Part I, 'Travels about 

 Home,' in which are treated The ways of Jays, A morning with Meadow- 

 larks, Bird-nesting with Burroughs, A Nighthawk incident. Part II, 

 'The Bird-life of two Atlantic Coast Islands' — Gardiner's Island and 

 Cobb's Island. Part III, 'Florida Bird-life' — Pelican Island, the Florida 

 Great Blue Heron and the Water Turkey, the American Egret, Cuthbert 

 Rookery. Part IV, 'Bahama Bird-life' — the Flamingo, the Egg Birds, 

 the Booby and the Man-o'-War Bird. Part V, ' The Story of Three West- 

 ern Bird Groups' — the Prairie Hen, a Golden Eagle's nest, Cactus Desert 

 Bird-life. Part VI, 'Bird Studies in California' — the Coastal Mountains 

 at Piru, the coast at Monterey, the Farallones, the San Joaquin Valley 

 at Los Banos, Lower Klamath Lake, the Sierras. Part VII, 'Bird-life 

 in Western Canada' — the Prairies, the Plains, the Mountains, the White 

 Pelican. Part VIII, ' Impressions of English Bird-life,' and indexes. An 

 'Introduction' of eight pages reveals to the reader some of the methods 

 and devises by which the photographic results shown in the present volume 

 were obtained. 



The foregoing will sufficiently explain the scope, purpose, and general 

 character of this exceptionally interesting and, in many respects, remark- 

 able book, where a wealth of photographic illustrations so effectively 

 supplements' the text. It remains therefore only to say that the story 

 of these varied experiences is most modestly yet effectively and pleasingly 

 told, without resort to anything beyond simple and direct statement of 

 events, more varied and opportune than has probably ever before fallen 

 to the lot of an ornithologist. There were, of course, mishaps and un- 

 pleasant experiences, but they leave slight trace in the author's narrative, 

 so full of new, first-hand information about birds whose home-life was 

 previously, in many cases, by no means well known. The book is ap- 

 propriately dedicated to Hermon C. Bumpus, Director of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, and " to those members of the Museum whose 

 cooperation made possible the work on which it is based." — J. A. A. 



Preble on the Birds of the Athabaska-Mackenzie Region. 1 — This ad- 

 mirable work of nearly 600 pages and numerous illustrations is based 

 mainly on the field work of Mr. Preble during two expeditions, the first 

 in 1901, the second in 1903-04. The publication of the report having 

 been unavoidably delayed till the present year (1908), it represents the 

 state of knowledge of the region down to the spring of 1908. It includes 



1 A Biological Investigation of the Athabaska-Mackenzie Region. By Edward 

 A. Preble, Assistant, Biological Survey. Prepared under the direction of Dr. C. 

 Hart Merriam, Chief of Bureau of Biological Survey. = North American Fauna No. 

 27, October 26, 1908. 8vo, pp. 574, pll. i-xxv (including map of the region), and 

 16 text figures. Birds, pp. 251-500. 



