!98 



A^A TURE 



[July 25, 1901 



opposition to the views held at the present day, at least 

 in this country. Mr. Harting will have it, as some have 

 done before him, that the swifts and swallows are near 

 akin, and brings forward in support of this contention 

 the views expressed by such undoubted authorities as 

 the late W. K. Parker and Mr. F. A. Lucas. But on 

 the other side we have a still greater weight of authority, 

 greater if only in point of numbers, no less than seven 

 ornithologists, whose names are as household words 

 among us, having emphatically committed themselves to 

 the conviction that the swifts are near allies of the 

 humming-birds. These illustrious seven are Beddard, 

 Furbringer, Gadow, Garrod, Newton, Sharpe and 

 Stejneger. About the finality of their decision there 

 can be little doubt. 



Other points in the scheme of classification adopted 

 by Mr. Harting would furnish material for comment did 

 space permit, but these are of comparatively minor 

 importance. 



In the matter of nomenclature, Mr. Harting will be 

 accused of unorthodoxy ; but in much of what he has 

 done in this matter, and in his defence thereof, he has 

 our sympathy. 



Orthography and etymology are conspicuous features 

 of this book, and many of Mr. Harting's observations 

 under these heads are extremely interesting. His 

 scholarly handling of these difficult matters will impress 

 every reader of this work. An immense amount of 

 labour must have been spent in digging in this, to most 

 of us, very uninviting field. But the results undoubtedly 

 are well worth the trouble which has been expended. 



The field-notes, as might have been expected from 

 Mr. Harting, are exceedingly interesting. We cannot 

 help thinking that in places these could with advantage 

 have been enlarged upon. The author is one of the 

 favoured few who has watched the bittern in the act of 

 " booming." This remarkable noise is, we now know, 

 produced whilst the beak is pointed vertically upwards, 

 an attitude commonly assumed by this bird. Till 

 recently it was generally held that the " booming " of 

 the bittern was made whilst the beak was thrust down 

 either into the mud or water. 



The "drumming" or "bleating" of the snipe 

 naturally calls forth some comment from the author. 

 Opinions differ still as to the mechanism by which this is 

 produced. The author is confident that it derives its 

 origin from the vibration of the primaries. Meeves, it 

 will be remembered, contended that it owed its origin to 

 the vibration of the outer tail feathers, which have 

 peculiarly thickened shafts. Still later observers have 

 tried to show that it is due to the operation of both 

 wings and tail, a violent current of air being driven 

 through the tail feathers by the rapid vibration of the 

 wings. 



The introduction of coloured plates constitutes a new 

 feature in this handbook. 



" They have been e.xecuted in response to a repeated 

 demand for a book on British birds with accurately 

 coloured plates in one volume." 



This, it is contended, it has been possible to do by 



figuring the head, and sometimes the foot, only. But 



this demand was surely for a book giving more or less 



lengthy diagnostic characters, supplemented by coloured 



NO. 1656, VOL. 64] 



plates. Mr. Harting's book does exactly the reverse, for 

 his diagnoses, which are rare, are supplementary to the 

 plates. No one would, of course, object to this if the 

 plates completely fulfilled their purpose. This they fail 

 to do, inasmuch as several undoubted British birds are 

 not figured at all. Even if the missing heads were added, 

 the book would still be lacking, for more immature stages 

 are necessary, and some heads must be re-drawn, being 

 quite inaccurate. These latter, however, are very few in 

 number. 



There are thirty-five plates in all, stated in the title- 

 page to be " from the original drawings by the late Prof. 

 Schlegel." Only a few of these, however, are by Schlegel, 

 the majority having been drawn by Keulemans many 

 years ago, and some are copied from Wolf. Their arrange- 

 ment must have been entrusted to a foolish person, for a 

 more stupid, exasperating distribution would have been 

 impossible. Instead of being placed at the end of the • 

 book, they are distributed between every ten pages of so. 

 Thus the plate illustrating the buntings faces the text 

 dealing with the sand grouse and capercallie, that con- 

 taining the finches is intercalated between the text 

 devoted to the pheasant, the small wading birds faces 

 the description of the wild-duck, and so on ! 



But these are minor blemishes in a work of consider- 

 able value, blemishes easily remedied in a second edition 

 which is almost sure to be demanded. The binding, 

 printing and paper leave nothing to be desired, and 

 the book, judged as a whole, should take high rank in 

 ornithological literature. W. P. P. 



PRACTICAL PHYSIOLOGY. 



All Introduction to Physiology. By William Townsend 

 Porter, M.D., Associate Professor of Physiology in 

 the Harvard Medical School. Pp. xvi 4- 314. (Cam- 

 bridge, Mass. : The University Press, 1901.) 

 THIS new text-book of practical physiology is interest- 

 ing from two distinct points of view. It is the first 

 important work on the subject which has appeared by an 

 American author, and the faculty for the invention of 

 simple yet efficient mechanical devices which is 

 characteristic of Americans is here reflected in clearly 

 written descriptions of inexpensive apparatus which will, 

 in large part, be novel to the British physiologist, who 

 has, unfortunately, grown up to believe that adequate 

 instruction cannot be given in physiology without ex- 

 pensive and elaborate apparatus and laboratory fittings. 

 But the book has other importance, in that it is an 

 indication of the extent and nature of the teaching that 

 can be given to the medical student under the new 

 system of dealing with the purely scientific subjects of 

 the medical curriculum which has recently been 

 inaugurated at the Harvard Medical School. 



The present is a most opportune time to consider any 

 new schemes which have appeared in other lands for the 

 teaching of these "preliminary and intermediate medical 

 studies," as the new London University styles them, 

 when there is so much vexation and anxiety of heart as 

 to how concentration of teaching and saving of labour 

 may be eftected under some general scheme which will 

 give the reconstituted University of London a medical 



