7 2 Recent Literature. ■ \!\^ 



rather unusual jet popular way the more striking features of their prob- 

 able development." The chapter headings are too numerous to quote in 

 full, but the following will give an idea of the style of treatment : I, A 

 bird's forefathers ; II, How did the birds iirst fly, perhaps ? V. The cut of a 

 bird's frock; VI, About a bird's underwear; VII, A bird's outer wrap; 

 VIII, A bird's new suit ; IX, 'Putting on Paints and Frills' among the 

 birds ; XI, War and weapons among birds; XIV, Freaks of bachelors and 

 benedicts in feathers ; XXIII, Tools and tasks among birds ; XXV, A little 

 talk on birds' toes ; XXVIII, What a bird knows about geography and 

 arithmetic ; XXX, A bird's modern kinsfolk. 



Mr. Baskett has treated the various topics relating to birds, — their 

 structure, functions and various adaptations, — in a manner likelj^ to 

 interest the general reader, and for the most part has shown a creditable 

 familiarity with his subject. He has, however, a prediliction for hjpoth- 

 esis, and thinks every fact relating to habit or structure should be 

 accounted for, and that even a poor theory is better than no theory at all. 

 A good square admission that there are still some things we do not know 

 is not to be tolerated. In the main, however, our author may be taken 

 as a safe leader, and his little book should do much toward enlightening 

 the general reader about birds and their relation to their surroundings. 

 The last 20 pages consist of notes on birds as seen ' Through the Window 

 Pane' of the author's study. The illustrations are largely from Chap- 

 man's ' Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America,' to which they are 

 duly credited in the Publishers' Note. — J. A. A. 



Chapman's ' Bird-Life', Colored Edition. — In the new edition of Chap- 

 man's 'Bird-Life' (see Auk, XIV, July 1897, pp. 336-339) the text has been 

 revised, and the size of the book increased to a full octavo, and the plates 

 enlarged and beautifully reproduced in colors, adding greatly to the value 

 of the work as an aid to the identification of the 100 species thus figured. 

 The publication of ' Bird-Life ' in its present form thus well meets the 

 demand for a popular work on our common birds, illustrated with col- 

 ored plates, at a reasonable price. — J. A. A. 



Montgomery's List of the Birds of West Chester, Chester Co., Pa. ' — 

 This is a carefully annotated list of 145 species observed in the immediate 

 vicinity of West Chester, Chester County, Pennsylvania, during the years 

 1885-91, and 1895-97. Most of the observations were made within an area 

 of only five miles' radius from West Chester, and no species is included 

 in the list which was not either taken bj' the author or seen by him in the 



^ A List of the Birds of the Vicinity of West Chester, Chester Co., Pennsyl- 

 vania. By Thomas H. Montgomery, Jr., Ph. D. American Naturalist, 1897, 

 pp. 622-628, 812-814, 907-911. 



