BOOK REVIEWS. 71 
on similarity, are unquestionably of value. And their very abbrevia- 
tion. makes it impossible for the very new beginner in zoology to use 
them and therefore gain erroneous ideas that he will later have to do 
away with. 
The nomenclature of the book is old. In the attempt to keep the cost 
of the volume as low as possible, pages have not been reset in cases 
where only names would be changed, the necessary corrections being 
made in the appendix. Also, numerous subspecies and varieties are 
lacking; thus in the Laniidae we find no mention of the very important 
subspecies L. ludovicianus migrans, the Migrant Shrike. It would seem 
that, if the book is to be maintained as a standard manual, it would 
be worth the while of both the publisher and author to keep it strictly 
up-to-date. Students are apt to pay $4.50 or $5.00 for a good, reliable, 
modern work, where they will hesitate sometime before investing $3.00 
in one that while on the whole pleasing, in the part is very much 
antiquated. * Ce: 
THE NEW PROGRESSIVE GEOGRAPHIES: CALIFORNIA. By Harold W. Fair- 
banks. Harr Wagner Publishing C. $1.50. 
The failings of the old type school geographies are too obvious 
to need much explanation. Anyone who has waded through the 
smaller Frye only to be confronted by the larger one, and who 
found when through with both that the sum of his knowledge was a 
little—a very little—above zero does not require further proof. I went 
through both; I learned the states in their order, and the capitals for 
each state. I learned that cotton grows in Texas and that it is made 
into cloth in England and (I think) Connecticut. I did not know why 
cotton grew in Texas; I did not know why there were falls where mills 
might be located. I did not know why some place was the capital of 
Maine, nor why its population was a certain number of thousands, 
hundreds, and units. I knew no whys, and I remember very little 
geography. I could not now, for the life of me, name the states in 
the Union. But I can tell why cotton grows in Texas; why there are 
waterfalls in some regions and none in others. If some one will put 
the cause as well as the effect into geography it will cease to be a 
mechanical affair, and become a live study. 
This is precisely what Dr. Fairbanks tries to do. His book for Cali- 
fornia is final; there will be no “follow-up” volume, and the student 
may begin it with a light heart in that respect. Facts are treated 
from the problem side; questions are asked or statements made, and 
then the grounds for the answer expected or the fact laid down are 
made clear. Peninsulas are more than “necks of land mostly sur- 
rounded by sea;” they are real things, that had a beginning and a 
growth. The aborigines are not mere curiosities briefly mentioned; 
they are made real by this problem method of treatment. While I 
