April 28, 1910] 



NATURE 



245 



diluvian " patriarchals." For between the Palaeolithic 

 deg^enerates and the Neolithic degenerates came the 

 Flood, which killed off all the extinct animals, such 

 as the mammoth, which 



•■ at all events, is not such an extremely ancient 

 animal. Its remains are even to-day excavated, in 

 some cases, as in Polar regions, with its flesh and 

 ' hair intact." 



It is difficult to know what to make of a writer 

 who, in the twentieth centur), believes, apparentlv, in 

 the actual historical existence of Noah and his ark, 

 and, by '"combining the traditions of Jews, Arabians, 

 and other nations with the stor\- as told in the Hindu 

 Puranas and the Sybylline \sicl\ Oracles," arrives at 

 I the following interesting account, " which may or may 

 I not be true," of what happened about the time of the 

 Flood (pp. 164, 165) : — 



'* Mahaleel was a very distinguished man who 

 married a widow in the line of Cain. His son, Jared, 

 thus acquired a claim to the rulership of the world, 

 and exercised it for some time with great distinction. 

 He is said by some to be the great Sesostris of the 

 Greeks. . . . Methuselah maintained the holy tradi- 

 tions, and for his sake the flood was postponed till 

 his death had taken place. Noah was by distinction 

 the righteous man. . . . The nation descended from 

 Ham very quickly turned aside to the old idolatry, 

 and worshipped their ancestors under various names. 

 These may be traced in Egypt, Chaldea, Phoenicia, 

 and elsewhere. The children of Shem became kings 

 of Magadha, but the dynasty ended about 2100 B.C. 

 Noah was soon deposed from his rule by his sons, 

 and driven away from the territory occupied by them. 

 According to one account he was last seen about 

 2000 B.C., and he was of a colour between white and 

 fuddy, and bald-headed." ( !) 



FIELD ORNITHOLOGY. 

 Camps and Cruises of an Ornithologist. By F. M. 

 Chapman. Pp. xvi+432. (London: Hodder and 

 Stoughton, n.d.) Price 12s. net. 



FOR seven years the author, with the assistance of 

 artist and preparateur, devoted the nesting 

 season of birds to collecting specimens and making 

 field studies and photographs on which to base a 

 series of what have been termed "Habitat Groups" 

 of North American birds for the American Museum 

 of Natural History. These groups are designed to 

 illustrate not only the habits and haunts of the 

 birds shown, but also the country in which they live. 

 The birds, and, in most instances, their nests and 

 young, are therefore placed in a facsimile reproduc- 

 tion, containing from 60 to 160 feet of the locality 

 in which they are found, and to this reaHstic repre- 

 sentation of their habitat is added a background, 

 painted from nature, and so deftly joined to the fore- 

 ground that it is difficult to distinguish where one 

 ends and the other begins. A reference to the photo- 

 graphs of these groups, which form some of the illus- 

 trations of this delightful book of field ornithology, 

 will convince anyone at once of the truth of this 

 remark. Some of these panoramic backgrounds por- 

 tray not only the haunts of certain American birds, 

 but America as well. 



In the pursuit of his calling the author has had 

 NO. 2 1 13, VOL. 83] 



the good fortune to behold some of the most interest- 

 ing and remarkable sights in the world of birds. The 

 object of the present volume is to perpetuate his 

 experiences and studies by telling the story of the 

 various expeditions of which the groups were the 

 objects, adding such information concerning the birds 

 observed as seems worthy of record, and illustrating 

 the whole with many photographs from nature, and 

 a number of the groups themselves. The result is 

 one of the most readable as well as informing books 

 of the kind we have had the pleasure of seeing. 



With the exception of one chapter, the whole book 

 deals with American birds. But this need not be a 

 drawback in the mind of even those whose ornithologi- 

 cal interests are almost ' wholly confined to British 

 birds. The author remarks that next to their native 

 birds there are probably none of more general interest 

 to the average American nature-lover than the birds 

 of England. This is partly due to sentimental reasons. 

 But we can return the compliment, for others. On6 

 is that many American birds, although considered by 

 systematists as distinct species, are so like European 

 birds that for all practical purposes of the field 

 ornithologist they may be considered the same, while 

 others are absolutely identical. So that in reading a 

 book about the habits of these birds in America we 

 are learning something more about our own birds* 

 habits, modified a little, perhaps, by a slightly different 

 environment or by different conditions of life. This 

 last comes home to us when we read the account of 

 Gardiner's Island ("within one hundred miles of our 

 most populous city "), where there are no rats and 

 no cats, " the ogres of the bird-world," and hardly 

 any "vermin" destructive to bird-life. This large 

 island, containing 4000 acres, is a place of peace and 

 plenty for the birds. The whole account of it is 

 full of interest, but the most remarkable fact is that 

 the osprey, which is very abundant, builds its nest 

 often in lowly situations, and actually in some cases 

 on the ground. A number of illustrations of the 

 ospreys and their nests are given, the great piled-up 

 heaps of sticks built by the birds which breed on the 

 beach affording excellent chances of photographing 

 the old birds at the nest. 



Some birds are more get-at-able in the North-West 

 than they are, say, in that almost unknown land, 

 the marshes of south-eastern Europe. Take the 

 great white pelican, for instance. It is a most diffi- 

 cut — nearly impossible — bird to study in Europe ; but 

 in many of the numberless lakes of Manitoba, Sas- 

 katchewan, and .Alberta, invariably upon islands, 

 white pelicans nest, a colony containing anything 

 from a dozen to several thousand birds. This bird 

 so closely resembles the European one that it used to 

 be considered identical with it. The chapter on and 

 illustrations of it are therefore very welcome, for the 

 author saw a good deal of pelicans. 



Perhaps the most interesting chapter in the book 

 describes the flamingo — not, indeed, our pink 

 flamingo, but the brilliant red species {Ph. ruber). 

 However, a flamingo, so far as life-habits are con- 

 cerned, seems to be simply a flamingo wherever he 

 lives. It is here truly remarked that there are larger 



