644 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 175. 



-appendix containiug a sample of the migra- 

 .tion blank used by the TJ. S. Department of 

 Agriculture ; lists of migrants (with dates of 

 ^arrival and departure) and winter birds at 

 Washington, D. C, Portland, Conn., and St. 

 Xiouis, Mo. ; an ' Outline for Field Observations, ' 

 which is probably the most complete key as to 

 the proper use to make of one's eyes in the 

 field ever formulated ; a list of the birds known 

 to nest in Portland, Conn.; a list of books of 

 reference ; and a comprehensive index. The 

 pages are profusely illustrated not only with 

 half-tone plates and other figures of birds' 

 heads, bills and feet, but also wdth figures of 

 insects and plants to show the nature of the 

 birds' food. 



■ The book is remarkably free from errors, 

 though I notice under Ked-poU Warbler, at page 

 317, Illinois birds referred to the Eastern race 

 and no notice at all taken of the Mississippi 

 Valley race. Other criticisms resolve themselves 

 •chiefly into differences of opinion. Every book 

 that deals with only part of the birds of a given 

 locality and presents a key of male birds only 

 :and these in spring dress, without hint of rarer 

 species that inconveniently pop up before even 

 a beginner's eyes is necessarily a frail guide. 

 It seems as if he ought to be warned of possi- 

 bilities. He ought also to be warned not to take 

 the 'law' of protective coloration (as cited at 

 page 34, and elsewhere referred to) too seri- 

 ously. There are numerous exceptions to it 

 not as yet satisfactorily explained. 



One feature of the book open to objection is 

 the lack of arrangement of the species in any 

 sort of order except that, as the writer con- 

 fesses, ' the birds which readers are most likely 

 to know and see are placed first, the rarer ones 

 left until later.' This idea results in splitting 

 up the Sparrows, the Vireos, the Woodpeckers 

 aud other groups so that some species are found 

 in one part of the book and others, closely allied, 

 in another, and after all we find such familiar 

 birds as the Yellow Warbler, the Redstart, the 

 Maryland Yellow-throat and the Oven-bird 

 very close to the end, precedence being given 

 to the Passenger Pigeon, the Pileated Wood- 

 pecker, the Snowy Owl and others less distinctly 

 rare. 



The press-work is excellent ; the plates range 



from good to bad, one of the best being that of 

 the Long-billed Marsh Wren at page 202 ; and 

 the figures serve a useful purpose. The begin- 

 ner might complain that the two sizes of cuts 

 given in many cases (there are three different 

 sizes of the cut of the Belted Kingfisher, pp. 

 xix, 158 and 165) tend to confuse his ideas of 

 relative size, but he should remember the illus- 

 trated alphabet of his first primer at school 

 where ' cat' and ' horse' cover equal areas. 



It would improve the volume if the compari- 

 sons aud supplemental keys were set ofi" from 

 the species they follow. For instance, the sketch 

 of Bachman's Sparrow at p. 242 apparently 

 occupies several pages that are in no wise part 

 of its biography. 



Aside from these somewhat trivial imperfec- 

 tions there is little to criticise, and it is only a 

 matter of regret that the biographies are not 

 twice as long. 



J. D., Je. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. 

 The American Journal of Science for May 

 opens with an article by Mr. T. A. Jaggar, 

 Jr., on 'Some Conditions affecting Geyser 

 Eruptions.' There are other papers on geo- 

 logical and mineralogical topics, as follows : 

 ' Determination of Plagioclase Feldspars in Rock 

 Sections :' by Dr. G. F. Becker. ' Some Lava 

 Flows of the Western Slope of the Sierra Ne- 

 vada, California:' by Mr. F. L. Ransome. 

 ' Krennerite, from Cripple Creek, Colorado :' 

 by Professor A. H. Chester. ' Some New 

 Jurassic Vertebrates from Wyoming :' by Pro- 

 fessor W. C. Knight. 'Estimation of Man- 

 ganese Separated as the Carbonate :' by Mr. M. 

 Austin. The number also contains two im- 

 portant physical papers : ' Properties of Sea- 

 soned Magnets of Self- Hardening Steel :' by 

 Professor B. O. Peirce ; and ' Curious Inversion 

 in the Wave Mechanism of the Electromagnetic 

 Theory of Light :' by Professor C. Barus. 



Terrestrial Magnetismior March opens with an 

 illustrated article in French, giving a descrip- 

 tion of the new magnetic observatory at Pare 

 Saint-Maur, near Paris, by M. Moureaux, the 

 director of the observatory. As the old observ- 



