NATURALISTIC PERIODICAL LITERATURE OF AMERICA TD 
By 1905 the wave of nature-study had swept far and wide over 
this country. This time it was not bird study, but nature study 
which was sweeping through the schools and homes. ‘Then the local 
naturalist organizations came into being in many places, established 
their organs in the form of some publication or other, and were 
soon on their way either toward a general napping period of in- 
activity, or to an actual decline. The ‘‘American Midland Na- 
turalist” is one of the publications which devoted itself to the ex- 
ploitation of rather local phenomena. : 
In April, 1909, this magazine was put forth by the University of 
Notre Dame, at Notre Dame, Indiana. Its purpose was to account 
for various features and interests of natural history, primarily of 
the prairie states. It was issued as a bi-monthly, and presents for 
the most part, nice prose articles, interesting, even, but not literary. 
Articles upon any phase of natural history. A Pare of the Jan- 
uary number, 1920, follows. . 
“Household Insects and their Remedies; Aquatic Life; Our Birds in 
November; Notes on Variations in Chicory; Our Birds in December.” 
Pages 11-146. 
This sort of periodical has been followed up and imitated greatly 
for the last few years, and it is this sort of thing which we need. 
If this magazine would adopt literary judgment and standards, 
mould its material to fit those, and then introduce poetry, it would 
be of much greater value than at present. Nevertheless, it does 
present the Middle West in interests and manners, in a manner 
which no other magazine of to-day does. It will be of interest 
historically. 
In 1914 two valuable publications arose. The Califor Naturalist 
Club, of Charles City, Iowa, began the publication of its annual 
reports and bulletins. The war has seriously interferred with this 
club, and its publications have not yet been resumed, but the 
contribution which the club made to our periodical literature of 
naturalistic value is decidedly worth noting. It is of interest again 
to notice that this comes from a Middle-Western locality. Bird 
clubs had preceded this organization, but they had published so 
far as I can find, no programs or literature of any sort. The First 
Annual Report of the Califor Naturalist Club contains contri- 
butions from Clarence Hawkes, the blind poet-naturalist of Mas- 
sachusetts, from Gene Stratton-Porter, the Indiana Bird Woman, 
