."78 Recently jmblished Ornithological Works. [Ibis, 



for even a second-hand acquaintance with what is certainly 

 an interesting recital of the experiences in South America 

 of a naturalist so well-known as the director of the New 

 York Zoological Station in British Guiana. The dozen 

 essays that constitute ' The Edge of the Jungle ' are what 

 in scientific parlance one may term " popular/' and that is 

 a sufficient reason for not holding the author to strict 

 account (from the zoological standpoint) for statements 

 that might otherwise warrant criticism. Mr. Beebe should 

 also be permitted the license that accompanies the poetic 

 imagination, whose value is, doubtless, greater in purely 

 literary than it is presumed to be in the more prosaic and 

 circumscribed study of systematic faunal life. In spite 

 of language that is frequently involved and obscure, but 

 which one may overlook as an attempt to express in words 

 some of the problems of, let us say, transcendental biology, 

 there are many attractive descriptions of exotic scenes in 

 this collection ; and we are glad to find in the series 

 "A Jungle Clearing" and ^'Sequels," reprinted from the 

 'Atlantic' for January 1920 and December 1921 respec- 

 tively. These and most of the other chapters furnish a 

 graphic account of several aspects of wild life in the tropics, 

 and will be read with both pleasure and profit by everyone 

 interested in the abundant flora and fauna of that fascinating 

 region. 



Bent on the habits of North American Gulls. 



[Life-histories of North American Gulls and Terus. Order Longi- 

 pennes. By Arthur Cleveland Bent. Bulletin no. 113, Smithsonian 

 Institution. United States National Museum, pp. x+345; o8 col. pis. 

 (eggs) J 77 pis. (photos). Washiugton, 8vo.J 



This volume is the second portion of a projected work on 

 the life-history of North American birds, the first part of 

 which, dealing with the Pygopodes (Auks, Loons, and 

 Grebes), was published in 1919 as Bulletin no. 107. 



Mr. Bent has been able to secure the assistance of a great 

 many contributors of notes and dati),aswell as of photographs, 

 and with tljc help of a considerable body of published matter 



