Recent Literature. 39 



treatise, and holds his subject fairly abreast of the information we have 

 acquired respecting it. Being, furthermore, a writer of recognized ability 

 and experience, in full possession of the data required in this case, 

 he gives us every reasonable assurance of accomplishing a work which 

 should constitute an interesting and important contribution to science. 

 Trusting that he may secure, in the matter of the plates, the full sup- 

 port of the publisher, who has in other respects brought out the Avork 

 in a style of mechanical execution exceptionally elegant, we bid him good 

 speed. — E. C. 



The Misses Joxes and Shulze's Nests and Eggs of Ohio 

 Birds.* — It became our sad duty to pen for the last number of the Buller 

 tin a notice of the death of the leading author of this work, on the very 

 threshold of the great undertaking with which her name properly continues 

 to be associated. The hope then expressed, that, notwithstanding this 

 most melancholy occurrence, the enterprise would not be abandoned by 

 Miss Shulze and other co-workers, has been fulfilled in the recent ap- 

 pearance of Part II. A slip printed with this number briefly refers to 

 Miss Jones's death, and announces that in future numbers Miss Shulze 

 will be assisted in the illustrations by Mrs. Virginia E. Jones, and that the 

 text will be prepared by Howard E. Jones, A. M., M. D. This promises 

 well for the continuance of a work so seriously interrupted at the outset ; 

 and the number now in hand shows no falling off either in the beauty of 

 the plates or in the appropriateness of the text. No illustrated work to 

 compare with the present one has appeai'ed in this country since the 

 splendid Audubonian period closed ; and it is not too much to say of the 

 Misses Jones and Shulze's pictorial work, that it rivals in beauty and fidel- 

 ity of illustration the productions of Audubon's pencil and brush, pro- 

 nounced by Cuvier the greatest monument ever erected by art to nature. 

 We would not be thought to have lost our ci'itical faculty in mere admi- 

 ration, nor seem to use words of praise without fully recognizing their 

 weight ; but it is useless to attempt the formality of mere criticism in a 

 case where our enthusiasm is instinctive. Judged from a standpoint of 

 the highest art culture, these colored lithographs have of course only a cer- 

 tain degree of excellence, determined rather by the limited possibilities of 

 the means employed than by the ability of the artists ; measured by the 

 highest standard of similar efforts to represent nature in lithography, these 

 illustrations compare favorably with the best that have ever appeared. 

 Though a gentle hand has faltered but too soon, and the spirit that guided 

 it has passed on, yet is assuredly erected to her memory the " monument 

 more lasting than brass." 



* Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of the Birds of Ohio. With Text. 

 By Miss Genevieve E. Jones and Eliza J. Shulze. Circleville, Ohio : Pub- 

 lished by the Authors. (Part II, Oct., 1879.) 



