°gyy J Rcrriit Li/cni/iire. 65 



liociis-poius, and :is siuli it i?. piic-i ilc, iinscieiUilic, ami iininoral." Wc 

 shall long stand disconsolate ontside the pearly gales of paradise, like 

 the Peri of oriental allegory, if we try to enter the blessed abode of 

 nonienclatnral stability on an\' such shifty tack as liiat I ' In some other 

 resjiects Mr. Elliot ties (ire-brands to foxes' tails and turns them loose in 

 the stubble of bad names on our Check-List, with a cool audacity to be 

 expected hy those who know him, and to make him a holy terror, some- 

 thing like the undersigned, to those who mistake misspelling for stability 

 of nomenclature. Baird, for example, could he speak now, would thank 

 nobody for perpetuating his blunder of Pedioccsies; Mr. Elliot corrects it 

 to Pedicecefes, uniformly with our 'Key' since 1872, unconformably with 

 our Check-List. Of what use is our obnoxious Canon XL, if it cannot be 

 enforced.'' Tyros and amateurs, virtuosos and ignoramuses, may respect 

 it, because they know no better; but it is a dead letter to such as Mr. 

 Elliot, who will continue to disregard it with imperturbable severity. 

 We trust that the dignified weight of his example will not be lost upon 

 those who have need to feel its force. 



Mr. Elliot's two books, ' Shore Birds' and ' Game Birds,' are, we believe, 

 the first appearance of a veteran technicist in the distinctive role of a 

 publicist. Their success is assured. We point to the A?iseres as other 

 suitable subjects upon which to exercise a facile pen, aud trust that the 

 work required to complete a trilogv may soon appear. — E. C. 



Gibson's ' Studio Neighbors.'* — The late William Hamilton Gibson, as 

 a reporter with pen and brush of the life-histories of our familiar birds, 

 beasts, and flowers, was without a rival. There have been and are greater 

 writers and more talented artists than he, but in no one man was the gift 

 of observing animals and plants and the power of describing what he saw, 

 both verbally and pictoriall} , so well developed. His death was an irrep- 

 arable loss to the cause of popular nature study, a loss with which we are 

 impressed anew as we examine this posthumously published volume of 

 his writings. It is only in part devoted to birds, for in the later years of 

 his life Mr. Gibson's attention was largelj' given to flowers, but the charm 

 with which he invested his subject is well illustrated here in the chapters 

 entitled 'A Familiar Guest' and 'The Cuckoos and the Outwitted Cow- 

 bird.' 



While we must regret Mr. Gibson's premature death, we have reason to 

 give thanks for the legac}' he has left us. In addition to the present work, 



[' See also Science, July 2, 1897, p. iS. — J. A. A.} 



^ My Studio Neighbors | By | William Hamilton Gibson ] Illustrated by the 

 Author I [Seal] | New York and London | Harper & Brothers, Publishers — 

 1898. — 8vo., pp. X -|- 237. Numerous illustrations. 



