A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 



" To the solid ground 

 Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye." — Wordsworth 



THURSDAY, MAY i, 1879 



COUES'S "BIRDS OF THE COLORADO" 



Birds of the Colorado Valley. By Elliott Coues. Part I. 

 Passeresto Laniida. Bibliographical Appendix. United 

 States Geological Survey of the Territories. Miscel- 

 laneous Publications — No. 11. 8vo, pp. 807. (Wash- 

 ington, 1878.) 



"IT 7HAT is commonly called a "popular" zoological 



VV work is nearly always one that is bad. The 



"knowledge possessed by the writers of such books is 



seldom greater than that of the public for whose benefit 



the books are ostensibly published, and is far behind that 



of a moderately well-informed student of the particular 



branch concerned. We shall name no names, but our 



eaders will doubtless be able to supply several instances 



n support of this assertion without inconveniently taxing 



heir memories. Within a very short space of time they 



lave seen the works of two English naturalists, whose 



vritings hare long attained a classical position, subjected 



o such treatment at the hands of " popular " editors as 



i'ould "make the angels weep," if those celestial beings 



)e actuated by human affections, while the number of 



looks independently put forth by "popular" sciolists is 



last counting. These books have their day — and some- 



imes it unfortunately is a long day. Granting that they 



some good by administering to or fostering the taste 

 3r natural history already so widely spread, the evil they 

 erpetrate is far greater. This evil lies first in their 



1 stilling for the most part erroneous ideas into the 

 mocent pupil, and secondly in their occupying and 



.cumbering the ground to the exclusion of better books, 



:ch drop still-bom from the press. The struggle for 



istence is admittedly slow in operation, and though we 



oubt not which way the triumph will eventually be, the 



id is far off, and ere it arrive dire mischief is done. 



he falsest notions are promulgated, the feeblest argu- 



ents are maintained, and the learner at last discovers 



' his sorrow that, instead of proceeding joyously on his 



)urse, he has to unlearn what he has acquired. Some- 



ing may be said in .favour of the mental discipline thus 



Vol. XX.— No. 496 



undergone, but on the other hand must be weighed the 

 waste of time that attends the process, and the spirit of 

 the age is against any discipline that is in the least 

 doubtful of effect. As an epithet to a work on zoology, 

 "popular" in nine cases out of ten really means 

 debasing. 



It is therefore with great pleasure that we can declare 

 the volume before us — "The Birds of the Colorado 

 Valley "^to be a popular book, not in the common sense 

 but in the uncommon, highest and best meaning of the 

 phrase. Dr. Coues has long since attained a scientific 

 reputation that cannot be gainsaid. His numerous works 

 are as well known and as highly esteemed on our side of 

 the Atlantic as on his own, and one quality which is con- 

 spicuous in all of them is their thoroughness. When 

 Dr. Coues writes a sentence he is in earnest, and there is 

 no mistaking what he says. Whether the subject be the 

 laboured description of an animal whose fur or plumage 

 is mottled and diversified by the most delicate combina- 

 tion of tints — many a rodent, an owl, or goatsucker for 

 example ; the unravelling of an abstruse question of com- 

 plicated synonymy ; an account of the economy of a 

 beast or bird to be given from his own wide experience or 

 compiled from the observation of others — this quality is 

 manifest. He has of course his faults. Some of them 

 he has not been slow to acknowledge, but there is seldom 

 a fault in his works that can be fairly called a blunder, 

 and even such blunders were they twice as great and 

 twice as numerous we could readily pardon, for there runs 

 through all his writings, showing itself at times even in 

 the driest spots, a humorous vein that can scarcely fail to 

 excite a sympathetic flow even from the sternest of scien- 

 tific breasts. In this volume Dr. Coues gives freer play 

 to his lighter mood than, we think, in any of his former 

 works, and at times (though he can be as serious when 

 he pleases as the strictest man of science would wish) 

 there is a boyish elasticity in his style which is exceed- 

 ingly pleasant. He is always a readable author, whereby 

 we mean that apart from the value of the information we 

 derive from his statements, he clothes them in agreeable 

 language, which far too many of his zoological brethren 

 neglect to do. Nor is there any attempt at fine writing, 

 which of course is a great mistake — the mistake in fact 



