NATURE 



2^ 



THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1897. 



BOOKS ON BIRDS. 



Life- Histories of North American Birds ^ from the Parrots 

 to the Crackles^ with special reference to their Breeding 

 Habits and Eggs. By Charles Bendire, Captain and 

 Brevet- Major, U.S.A. (retired). 4to, pp. ix + 518 ; with 

 seven lithographic plates. Smithsonian Institution. 

 United States National Museum. Special Bulletin. 

 (Washington : Government Printing Office, 1895.) 



Feathered Friends : Old and New. By Dr. W. T. Greene, 

 M.A., &c. Svo, pp. 302. (London : L. Upcott Gill, 

 1896.) 



Coloured Figures of the Eggs of British Birds, with 

 Descriptive Notices. By Henry Seebohm, author of 

 " Siberia in Europe," &c. Edited (after the author's 

 death) by R. Bowdler Sharpe, LL.D., &c., Assistant 

 Keeper, Sub-Department of Vertebrata, British 

 Museum. Pp. xxiv -I- 304. (Sheffield : Pawson and 

 Brailsford, 1896.) 



A Handbook to the Game-Birds. By W. R. Ogilvie- 

 Grant, Zoological Department, British Museum. 

 Vol. ii. Pheasants (continued), Megapodes, Curassows, 

 Hoatzins, Bustard-Quails. (Allen's Naturalist's Library. 

 Edited by R. Bowdler Sharpe, LL.D., F.L.S.) 

 Pp. xvi -1- 316. (London : W. H. Allen and Co., Ltd., 

 1897.) 



Among British Birds in their Nesting Haunts, illustrated 

 by the Caviera. By Oswin A. J. Lee. Parts i to 3. 

 (Edinburgh : David Douglas.) 



THIS volume of the life-histories of North-American 

 birds, the third of the series of Special Bulletins 

 issued by the Smithsonian Institution for the illustration 

 of its collections deposited in the United States National 

 Museum, is the second devoted to the land birds of the 

 United States, and is from the same pen as its pre- 

 decessor, the well-known Curator of Oology in that 

 Museum, Captain Bendire. It is with very deep regret 

 that we observe the recent announcement that death has 

 snatched from his hands the completion of the task for 

 which he was so competent by his untiring observations 

 of many years, and in which he took the deepest interest. 



The present volume treats of the parrots, cuckoos, 

 trogons, kingfishers, woodpeckers, goat-suckers, swifts, 

 humming-birds, cotingas, tyrant-flycatchers, larks, crows, 

 starlings, and Icteridce, the classification of the Code and 

 Check-list of the American Ornithologists' Union being 

 followed, as in Captain Bendire's first volume. He 

 monographs 197 species, and especially discusses the 

 range of the birds, their breeding habits, dates of nesting, 

 and the description of their eggs. The latter are illus- 

 trated by natural-sized chromolithographs of 1 10 species 

 on seven plates, nearly all of them executed with great 

 fidelity to nature. 



The life-history of each species is full and accurate, 

 while many of the facts given are recorded for the first 

 time as the result of Captain Bendire's own observations 

 in many parts of America. He has laid under contribu- 

 tion those, also, of his numerous personal correspondents 

 and of his brother ornithologists throughout the States. 

 The outcome of the whole is a solid contribution to our 

 NO. 1437. VOL. 56] 



knowledge of the families discussed. The plates, as 

 already said, are excellent, and the text is beautifully 

 printed on rich, smooth paper, in the sumptuous style of 

 the Smithsonian Committee, who, having decided that a 

 work is worthy to be published by them, spare no cost in 

 worthily sending it forth to the world. 



Dr. Greene's book, " Feathered Friends," contains, 

 apparently, a reprint of articles contributed elsewhere. 

 The " Friends" noticed are exclusively cage birds ; and 

 the information about them, which might have been con- 

 densed with advantage by the omission of many of the 

 puerile stories of the Joey and Cat adventure type, con- 

 tains, no doubt, some hints useful to those who keep 

 birds in captivity, for whom, indeed, the volume is 

 apparently intended. The woodcuts, which illustrate 

 some of the species described, are not of the highest 

 style of art or reproduction. 



Henry Seebohm's " Coloured Figures of the Eggs of 

 British Birds " is, to all intents, a new edition of the 

 fourth volume, the plates, of his British birds, with the 

 addition of the descriptions of their nests and eggs copied 

 from that work, with a condensed account of the dis- 

 tribution of each species, its laying time and breeding 

 places. The author's lamented death before its comple- 

 tion necessitated the bringing out of his book under the 

 editorship of his friend Dr. Sharpe, who has done his best 

 to present it as he believed Mr. Seebohm would have 

 wished it to be issued. The book, as now published, is 

 very complete, and for the oologist is quite independent 

 of the large four-volume " British Birds." This handsome 

 and somewhat bulky volume contains sixty plates with 

 the figures of the eggs of 377 species of birds, and where 

 the eggs are subject to variation, a series of the more 

 characteristic deviations from the normal type has also 

 been represented. We are safe from contradiction in 

 saying that no work on British oology has been produced 

 in this country in which the eggs have been so faithfully 

 and artistically reproduced ; as an example, we may refer 

 to those of the kestrels and the guillemots on Plates 4 and 

 55 respectively. The book will, undoubtedly, remain 

 the standard authority on the eggs of British birds for 

 many years to come. 



Dr. Sharpe has prefaced the work with an interesting 

 and appreciative " personal reminiscence " of the author, in 

 which Seebohm's chief contributions — and they are numer- 

 ous and important — to ornithology, are summarised, and , 

 some of his many generous gifts to the National Collection, 

 of which he was a constant benefactor, are rather indi- 

 cated than fully detailed. A specially successful photo- 

 gravure likeness of Mr. Seebohm forms a fitting frontis- 

 piece to the volume. It ought to be mentioned that the 

 chromolithographic plates are the work of Messrs. Pawson 

 and Brailsford, of Sheffield, and they prove that the 

 highest class of chromolithography can be done as well 

 in England as anywhere on the continent. 



The second volume of Mr. Ogilvie-Grant's "Game- 

 Birds" forms the latest addition to Allen's Naturalist's 

 Library. His previous volume showed him to be a most 

 accurate and conscientious worker, and that now under 

 review will sustain his reputation in these respects. The 

 British Museum is fortunate in possessing one of the 

 most complete collections of game-birds in the world, 

 only eighteen species of those known to science being 



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