414 Recent Literature. aus 
for a knowledge of birds he is deluded into reading a story where the 
human element commands his interest, and if while reading he does not 
soon learn to care for birds for their own sake, it is because his nature is 
abnormally unsympathetic. 
The plan of the book will explain how well adapted it is to achieve this 
end. ‘Dr. Roy Hunter’ with his daughter, nephew and niece, a country 
boy and two or three others, are passing the summer at ‘Orchard Farm,’ 
and the book is made up of a series of field and study talks in which the 
children are eager questioners and often keen observers, while the Doctor 
is ever present to explain in an always interesting manner the signifi- 
cance of the scenes from bird-life by which they are surrounded. The 
children themselves are so bright, the Doctor so responsive, that other 
children reading this record of a summer with the birds will not only 
become attached to its human characters, but to its feathered ones as 
well, and at the same time will unconsciously absorb an extensive and 
correct knowledge of ornithology. 
The text is made more real by Mr. Fuertes’s beautiful drawings, and 
their charm in turn is increased by the text, which makes us regard them 
as we would the portraits of the leading characters in a fascinating 
story. It isevident, therefore, that both authors and illustrator have made 
not only an important contribution to literature and art, but that they 
have rendered an invaluable service to science in so sharpening the 
entering wedge of bird-lore, that it may now find openings which before 
were closed to it. —F. M. C. 
Birds of Maine.!— Mr. Knight and his confréres deserve the thanks of 
all ornithologists for rendering accessible so large an amount of informa- 
tion concerning the birds of Maine. The list proper enumerates 316 
species and subspecies as known to occur in the State. After each species 
an outline of its general status as a Maine bird is given, and this is 
followed by a brief statement of its manner of occurrence in each county, 
based on the notes of many observers whose names are placed in 
parentheses after the remarks for which they are responsible. To this 
list, occupying pp. 13-132, are appended sections on ‘ Introduced Species,’ 
the Domestic Pigeon and House Sparrow being here included; a ‘ Hypo- 
thetical List,’ giving 27 species, and a ‘Summary’ in which an analysis 
of the avifauna of the State is presented. There is also a brief but 
well considered essay on ‘Faunal Areas’ with special reference to the 
distribution of life in Maine, while a Bibliography and an Index complete 
an excellent piece of work.— F. M.C. 
1 Bulletin No. 3.| The University of Maine | Department of Natural 
History. | A List of the | Birds of Maine | Showing their Distribution by 
Counties and their Status in each County. | Prepared under the auspices of 
the United Ornithologists of Maine | By Ora W. Knight, B. S., | Assistant 
in Natural History. | Augusta | Kennebec Journal Print | 1897.—- 8vo. pp. 184. 
