NATURE 



541 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1898. 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 

 Bird Studies, an Account of the Land Birds of Eastern 

 North America. By W. E. D. Scott. 4to, pp. xii 

 + 363. (New York and London : G. P. Putnam's 

 Sons, 1898.) 



IF it be permissible to judge from the books with 

 which they are respectively supplied, there must be 

 an inherent constitutional difference between the English 

 and the American reader of popular bird-lore. In almost 

 all the numerous works written for the benefit of the 

 former there is a more or less rigid adherence to a 

 systematic arrangement of some kind or other. As we 

 have had previous occasion to remark, American books, 

 on the other hand, are characterised by their partiality 

 for methods of arrangement other than systematic. 

 Personally we confess to a deep-rooted prejudice in 

 favour of the English plan ; but if American readers 

 find this too cut and dried for them, and prefer some less 

 inelastic classification, little fault can be found with the 

 writers who endeavour to gratify their taste. 



In his preface the author tells us that the present 

 volume is an invitation to a more intimate acquaintance 

 with the land birds of Eastern North America. And 

 since under that somewhat vague geographical expres- 

 sion he includes not only the portion of the continent 

 lying east of the Mississippi together with Lake Win- 

 nipeg and the western border of Hudson Bay, but also 

 the whole of Greenland and the islands which naturally 

 group themselves with the mainland of the region, it is 

 obvious that the fauna to be dealt with is a very extensive 

 one. 



In place of a systematic classification, the birds, which 

 range from the ordinary song-birds to the quails, have 

 been made to group themselves around a series of 

 familiar stations. We have, in the first place, the birds 

 frequenting the house and homestead, followed by those 

 to be met with along the highways and lanes, and these 

 again succeeded by the denizens of the woods and the 

 inhabitants of fields and meadows. Finally, we have 

 the marsh and swamp birds, together with those to be 

 found along the margins of streams and ponds. Not 

 that the true water-birds are included, since of these the 

 author proposes to make a companion volume, should 

 his present effort meet with a satisfactory reception on 

 the part of the public. At the end of the volume is 

 given a systematic table of all the species treated. 



If a miscellaneous arrangement of some kind or 

 another be inevitable, the one selected is, perhaps, 

 among the least open to criticism. There is, however, 

 considerable difficulty in certain cases whether a bird 

 should be assigned to one group or another, and there 

 is the decided objection that nearly allied forms are often 

 widely sundered. More serious is the absence of any 

 attempt on the part of the author to lift his readers 

 above the level of mere collectors and observers, and to 

 point out that the bird-fauna of the extensive tract under 

 consideration contains elements pertaining to more than 

 one zoological province. There is, for example, no 

 indication that the one species of humming-bird found 

 NO. I 5 10, VOL. 58] 



in Eastern North America is essentially an immigrant 

 from the South American fauna, and as strange to the 

 Holarctic fauna as is the armadillo met with in Texas. 

 The inclusion, too, of rare stragglers from Europe is 

 certainly a mistake in a work of this nature ; the most 

 glaring instance being the introduction of the common 

 kestrel, on the strength of a single specimen obtained 

 in Massachusetts. 



Another point open to criticism is the popular nomen- 

 clature of certain species. In the review of another work 

 on American birds, attention has been already drawn in 

 this journal to the inconvenience arising from the appli- 

 cation of the names of well-known European birds to 

 totally different American species ; but this sinks into 

 insignificance when compared with the practice of using 

 a name belonging to a South American bird for a North 

 American songster. In the Argentine and other parts 

 of South America there exists a well-known group of 

 Dendrocolaptidce, universally termed oven-birds {Fur- 

 7iariiis) ; and it is accordingly in the highest degree in- 

 convenient to employ the same title for a North American 

 representative of the Mniotiltidce, especially when the 

 bird in question {Seiurus aurocapilliis) has the alter- 

 native name of golden-crowned thrush. 



The descriptions of the various birds referred to seem 

 for the most part well adapted for popular use ; and the 

 author's practice of frequently italicising one or more of 

 the leading distinctions is decidedly worthy of commend- 

 ation. We are also fully in accord with the author when 

 he says that the meaning of colour-descriptions can only 

 be fully grasped by observation and experience, seeing 

 that no two describers will ever designate one particular 

 shade of red or other colour by precisely the same term. 

 And if this be true of colour, still more is it so with regard 

 to song, which Mr. Scott regards as inexpressible, either 

 in words or by instruments. 



With regard to the numerous photogravures with 

 which the volume is illustrated, the author states that 

 these have been prepared under his own immediate 

 supervision. " Some," he writes, " are taken from live 

 birds, others from dead ones, some are from stuffed 

 birds ; others from prepared skins. All are faithful and 

 accurate pictures, just what the camera presents, with 

 its keen interpretation." This is candid, and enables 

 the reader without much difficulty to arrive at the 

 nature of the subjects for the different photographs. 

 Although by no means all on the same level, these 

 latter are on the whole of a high standard of excellence, 

 and serve to render the volume attractive not only to 

 students of bird-life, but to lovers of nature in general. 

 Among the most successful effects, mention may be 

 made of the purple finch (p. 49), the screech-owl (p. 72), 

 and the nest of the flicker (p. 176). Interspersed in the 

 text are a number of photographs of dead birds, for the 

 most part lying on their backs, with their feet in the air. 

 Although these may be valuable as aids to the identifica- 

 tion of the species, to our own mind they convey a some- 

 what melancholy impression, especially in the case of 

 song-birds, which should be the incarnation of life 

 and joy. 



Limitations of space have probably been the reason 

 that the author's descriptions of habits are for the most 

 part brief ; and this is the more to be regretted seeing 



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