ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 49 



insertion of some wood-cut illustrations from Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway's 

 large work, which, with the excej^tion of the frontispiece, by Miss Brydges, 

 almost uniformly mar, rather than beautify the volume. The very first 

 cut is of an inconsolable Olive-sided Flycatcher, which is written down 

 " Hermit Thrush " ! But this is the fault of the publishers, who also 

 betray their ignorance in the bad spelling of the preface, and not of the 

 author, who did not see the proof-sheets. It is to be hoped that Mr. 

 Burroughs will collect his later essays on birds into a second volume, 

 which would meet with a very hearty welcome. — E. I. 



Minot's " Birds of New Ekgland." * — It would not be generous, or 

 even just, to criticise this work as a scientific treatise or as a mature pro- 

 duction. We prefer to side with the youthful author, who is evidently a 

 lover of birds, keenly alive to the delights they are capable of affording, 

 and enthusiastic in the pursuit of his favorite study, who has in an in- 

 credibly brief period trained himself to become a really good observer, 

 and who shows that he possesses qualities which go to make a first-rate 

 ornithologist. In this volume he not only imparts to others the knowl- 

 edge of birds he has acquired, but also endeavors to awaken the same 

 pleasurable emotions he has experienced in the acquisition : the former 

 design is carried out with fidelity, precision, and detail, while the fresh- 

 ness, ncvivete, and no little good taste which the literary execution of the 

 work displays will go far toward meeting the latter indication ; for the 

 color of personality — if it be the genuine thing, as it is in this case un- 

 questionably — always lends a charm to natural-history narrative. The 

 wofk, moreover, shows traces of kindly interested supervision during its 

 preparation, and the contributions to its pages are not the least valuable of 

 its contents. There is very little technicality, chiefly taken from Baird 

 and another writer ; the descriptions, however, are tersely original. The 

 instructions for collecting eggs diff"er from those ordinarily given mainly 

 on the score of humanity, showing what may be accomplished without 

 destroying the parents ; but we waver here, saying frankly that as be- 

 tween a bird's life and the identification of an egg we are merciless. Next 

 after the biographies of the birds, which are conveniently divided into 

 sections relating respectively to the nest and eggs, the general habits, and 

 the song or other jiotes, and which embody no little information not 

 abeady the property of ornithologists, — on the night-habits of some spe- 

 cies, for instance, — the most prominent and most original features of the 

 work are the artificial "keys," in one of which the birds themselves 

 are analyzed somewhat after a method lately introduced, the eggs of 



* The Land-Birds and Game-Birds of New England, with Descriptions of the 

 Birds, their Nests and Eggs, their Habits and Notes. By H. D. Minot. Salem, 

 Mass.: Naturalist's Agency. Boston: Estes and Lauriat. " 1877 " [i. e. Dec, 

 1876]. 1 vol. 8vo. pp. xvi, 456, figg. xylog. 29 (on 1 pi.) + 22 (in text). 



