Vol. XIV 
a7 Recent Literature. 413 
camera to a treeand focusing for a close range picture on a nest bulging 
with young Robins, I noticed them disgorging cherry stones, one of which 
dropped on the side of the nest, and rolled back inside. The parent birds 
almost universally remove all excrement from the nest, but it was evident 
that they did not trouble themselves about removing the clean cherry 
stones, and on examination of several nests of the Robin, Wood Robin, 
and Catbird, I found as usual that they each contained from ten to fifteen 
stones, but, as I had never specially noted before, were perfectly clean, 
and must have been disgorged in all cases. 
I concluded, therefore, that nature has only provided the small bird with 
this means of getting rid of the stone, which is too large to pass beyond 
the cavity of the stomach. I only wonder that I never thought of it before, 
for during cherry season, in nearly every old nest, at least of the varieties 
mentioned, will be found a clean little pile of cherry stones.— Wm. L.’ 
BaiLy, Ardmore, Pa. ; - 
Birds’ Tongues in Pictures. — During this spring I have had especial 
opportunity to study song birds (Vireos, Warblers, House Wren, Catbird, 
Sparrows, Grackles, Orioles),' and one point of interest which I have 
determined to my satisfaction is that from a distance of a few feet, with a 
strong opera glass, a bird’s tongue caznot be seen between the open 
mandibles when singing. In almost all drawings or paintings of singing 
birds one will find the elevated tongue shown clearly. The musical 
instrument of a bird is not its tongue, as almost every one knows; the 
sounds and modulations are produced in the throat and therefore why 
should the tongue be expected to show (except, perhaps, as a modulator), 
To cut the tongue out of a picture of a singing bird detracts from it 
and looks exceedingly strange, solely because we are used to seeing it so 
in likenesses, but not in life — but the portrait nevertheless becomes true 
to nature. — REGINALD HEBER Howe, JR., Longwood, Mass. 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
Citizen Bird.? — ‘ Citizen Bird’ is a unique contribution to the literature 
of Ornithology. It addresses an audience which ornithologists had 
previously neglected and does it in so attractive a manner that the 
reader’s attention is held from cover to cover. With perhaps no desire 
1T had no opportunity of observing Thrushes, except the Robin. 
2 Citizen Bird | Scenes from Bird-Life in Plain | English for Beginners | By 
Mabel Osgood Wright | And | Elliott Coues | With one hundred and eleven 
Illustrations | By Louis Agassiz Fuertes | New York | The Macmillan 
Company | London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd. | 1897 | All rights reserved | 
I2mo. pp. xiv + 430. Engraved half-tones in text, 111. (Price, $1.50.) 
