3 38 feecent Literature. [ uy 
an observer would naturally seek there the name of some Red-headed 
Woodpecker, Cedarbird, Redstart, or Fly-catching Warbler which had 
attracted his or her attention. 
The untitled portion following the field-key takes up in systematic 
order (following the sequence of the A. O. U. Check-List) the species 
mentioned in the key, and describes, somewhat in detail, but very 
interestingly, their salient characteristics of habits, voice, etc. Several 
statements in this portion of the work may, however be fairly questioned 
while others require correction. Of Grebes, it is said (p. 86) that they 
“are quite helpless on land. They can not even stand erect on their 
toes .. . but when resting, support themselves on the whole length of 
the foot or tarsus.’ Grebes, however, are not only able to stand erect on 
their toes, and frequently do so, but walk also in this position. Plovers 
are characterized as differing from Snipe in possessing “three instead 
of four toes”; a very erroneous diagnosis, since several genera of Plovers 
possess a well-developed hallux while some Snipe have none! Wood- 
peckers are said (p. 136) to be ‘‘ represented in all the wooded parts of 
the world except Australia and Madagascar.” They are quite wanting 
also in New Guinea, New Zealand, and the whole of Polynesia, and a 
recent high authority states that no species of the family is known to 
have occurred in Egypt. Young Hummingbirds are likened to “a tangle 
of tiny pink limbs and bodies” (p. 149). Are young Hummingbirds, 
even when newly hatched, ever pink? Those that I have seen were very 
dark-colored —a sort of livid gray or slate-color. 
The particular points to which attention is called above are, of course, ‘ 
comparatively trivial inaccuracies. Not so, however, the statement (on 
page 2) that birds, like reptiles, have the heart three-chambered, since it 
is well-known than in this respect birds agree with mammals (which have 
a four-chambered heart) and not with reptiles. 
These criticisms of ‘Bird-Life’ are not made in any captious spirit, 
but to show that the book, like practically all others, is not wholly free 
from faults. It may truthfully be said that ‘Bird-Life’ is a book which 
will prove most useful to those requiring the kind of information which it 
professes to give, and which no other book supplies in so concise and 
entertaining aform. ‘The illustrations are, in the main, excellent, and of 
course add greatly to both the utility and attractiveness of the volume. 
—R. R. 
Publications Received. — Barlow, C. The Story of the Farallones. 
Chapman, Frank M. Bird-Life, a Guide to the Study of our Common 
Birds. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1897. Large 12mo, pp. xii-++ 270, 
with 75 full-page plates and numerous text drawings. $1.75. 
Cooke, W. W. The Birds of Colorado. (Bull. 37, State Agricultural 
College, Fort Collins, Colorado.) 
Dixon, Charles. The Migration of Birds: an Attempt to reduce avine 
season-flight to law. Amended Edition. London: Horace Cox. $8vyo, 
pp- xx-+ 426, with maps. 1897. 
