NA TURE 



421 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, igoq. 



TWO BIRD BOOKS. 

 (i) Birds oj the World: a I'opidar Account. 



By 



Dr. Frank H. Knowlton. With a chapter on 

 the Anatomy of Birds, by Frederic A. Lucas; 

 The whole edited by Robert Ridgway. Pp. .\iii + 873. 

 (New York : Henry Holt and Company ; London : 

 Constable and Co., Ltd., 1909.) Price 30X. net. 

 (2) Birds Useful and Birds Harmful. By Otto Her- 

 man and J. .A. Owen. Pp. viii + 387. (Manchester: 

 The University Press, igog.) Price 6s. net. 

 (i;TT would seem that there is no satisfying the 

 J- demand for books on birds. Every year places 

 before, not the scientific ornithologist only, but the 

 general reader, in this country, scores of volumes on 

 this group of animals, which must indicate a ready 

 sale for ihem. The taste for natural-history works 

 has unquestionably been growing in England at a 

 r.'ipid rate during the last decade among all classes of 

 ihe community, instigated and encouraged largely by 

 the non-technical manner in which so many treatises 

 of the highest scientific authority are being published 

 for the general reader, the majority of them lavishly 

 illustrated, as well as by the issue of so many local 

 faunas, which give an impulse to the study of the 

 species to be found in their own neighbourhood by 

 those into whose hands the books fall. 



Imitation is the sincorest flattery, we know. The 

 "Birds of the World," the first of the two volumes 

 on our list, is one of the American Nature series, pro- 

 jected by Holt and Company, of New York, to which 

 the leading scientific men of America are to contri- 

 bute. This volume, however, compares disadvan- 

 lageously in one respect with those of the English 

 Nature series, in handiness and comfort in reading 

 or consulting. It is an octavo measuring loj inches 

 long by y}j inches wide, and nearly 3 inches thick. 

 It contains 873 thick pages, and turns the balance at 

 more than 41b. ; it might be termed a bi-manual, or 

 perhaps more appropriately a table-edition. In respect 

 10 its contents, Ihe book stands on a high pedestal of 

 excellence. 



The demand for books on birds seems to be develop- 

 ing in America as rapidly as it is doing in England, 

 for the Nature series of the United States is due, as 

 the preface assures us, 



" to the great awakening of popular interest ... in 

 recent years in relation to our birds, an interest that 

 has been fostered not only by the admirable work 

 of the Audubon societies and the widespread nature 

 teaching in the schools, but by the deeper, broader 

 sentiment which is leading back to, and nearer to, 

 nature. The increasing number of people yearly turn- 

 ing back to the country, either for recreation or per- 

 manent residence, has naturally stimulated a desire 

 to know more intimately their surroundings — the 

 trees, the flowers, the birds." 



The three names which appear, as authors or editor, 

 on the title-page are a sufficient guarantee that the 

 desire of the migrant to the country to know more, not 

 only about the birds of the United .Slates, but of those 

 of the globe generally, will be gratified amply, ac- 

 \0. 2084, VOL. 81] 



curately, and in a manner likely to foster personal 

 observation of those species within the reader's reach. 



After an introductory chapter dealing with defini- 

 tions, and such questions as pterylosis and feather 

 structure, nests and eggs, we are presented with 

 clearly, concisely written chapters on the anatomy of 

 birds, their geographical distribution, migration and 

 classification. The various subclasses and orders of 

 birds are then dealt with in twenty-one further chap- 

 ters. Dr. Knowlton recognises two subclasses — Archae- 

 ornithes, with unique representation in the Archae- 

 opteryx, and Neornithes, containing all other birds, 

 which he divides into twenty-one orders. Had space 

 permitted, we should feel teinpted to demur at the 

 position assigned in the avian " tree " to the Hesper- 

 ornithiformes and Ichthyornithiformes, and to the 

 Palamedeae and Opisthocomi. Taking the author's 

 brigading as it stands, we find each of the orders 

 discussed in a very interesting manner. The habits 

 and life-history of all the more important species in- 

 each are described concisely, as space demanded much 

 condensation; yet nothing essential or really important 

 is omitted to enable the reader to obtain an excellent 

 grasp of each group. The illustrations are very numer- 

 ous, and, with a few exceptions, excellent. There are 

 233 black-and-white blocks, many of them full-page; of 

 the latter, some of the best are reproductions of those 

 beautiful life-like groups with scenic backgrounds 

 which form one of the most attractive features of the 

 American Museum in New York. The representation 

 of the young hoatzins is specially instructive. Where 

 the blocks, however, have been made from coloured 

 Ijlates in such works as Schlegel's " Dicrgaarden " or 

 the Zoological Society of London's publications, the 

 results have proved less satisfactory, inasmuch as the 

 yellows and reds of the originals have come out too 

 dark. The smaller text-figures also leave something to 

 be desired, occasionally, in the clear definition of 

 markings on the plumage. Of the sixteen full-page 

 plates reproduced in the three-colour process, with 

 which the volume is further embellished, specially note- 

 worthy are those of the mandarin-duck, the racket- 

 tailed kingfisher, and the lesser bird of paradise. The 

 figure of the kiwi on p. 29 is taken, we presume, from 

 a drawing of the type which was mounted for Lord 

 Stanley's collection at Knowsley, before the correct 

 attitude and habits of the apteryx were sufficiently 

 known either to scientific men or to taxidermists. 

 Buller's " Birds of New Zealand " would have sup- 

 plied a better model. 



The information contained in the " Birds of the 

 World " is, as already remarked, nearly everywhere 

 up to date, and very accurate ; but the omission of any 

 reference to the Phororachidae is surprising. In regard 

 to the moa, the bird is described as being absolutely 

 wingless. Evidence, however, was obtained from a 

 turbary deposit near Omaru proving that certainly one 

 species of Dinornis possessed a humerus that func- 

 tioned in its glenoid cavity on the scapulo-coracoid ; 

 and, if the writer be not mistaken, a small bone is in 

 existence in New Zealand very similar in form to that 

 described as belonging to the humerus of CEpyornis. 

 The moa had probably, therefore, a diminutive wing like 



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