780 
or others previously. He divides the order 
into four suborders, the Pareiasauria, Procol- 
ophonia, Diadectosauria and Pantylosauria, 
the last two new. While these terms will be 
convenient, the present writer doubts whether 
the distribution proposed of the families is 
really the best, or whether indeed there is 
really any need of classificatory terms be- 
tween the family and order at present. 
Dr. Case urges, what has now become ap- 
parent, that the Cotylosauria are far from 
being the beginning of the reptilian stem, that 
forms so diverse as those we already know 
from the base of the American Permian must 
have been long years in developing. Never- 
theless they approach that beginning relatively 
close, and, until the actual beginning is found, 
must suffice as the basis for the classification 
of all later reptiles. The writer can not agree 
with the author in the interpretation of some 
of the cranial elements in these reptiles, but 
as that is a subject about which no two au- 
thors agree, Dr. Case’s views are perhaps as 
good as those of others. Nor is he assured 
that the forms Fosauravus and Sauravus 
really belong among the Cotylosauria. And, 
as regards the attachment of the ribs in these 
“microsaurian ” forms, they are really not 
different from those of all the known Permo- 
Carboniferous reptiles. 
The work has been brought out in excellent 
shape by the Carnegie Institution, and it will 
long remain as an indispensable one for all 
students of the early reptiles. 
S. W. WILLISTON 
The Home-life of the Osprey. By Curnton G. 
Asgort. London, Witherby & Co. 1911. 
Pp. 1-56; 32 mounted plates. 
This volume forms the third of an admir- 
ably planned series, designed to present, 
through the aid of pictures and a brief text, 
the most interesting facts about celebrities of 
the bird world. The American osprey is 
worthy of this distinction, and the field-work, 
upon which this biography is based, although 
“necessarily limited to the brief opportunities 
of a business man,” has been prepared with 
commendable care. We venture to express the 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 907 
hope that more business men, and representa- 
tives of the professions may in time come to 
reap the profits and enjoyments which an in- 
telligent interest in natural history affords. 
The author’s studies were made on the coast 
of New Jersey, at Great Lake, North Caro- 
lina, and at that world-famous preserve for 
ospreys, Gardiner’s Island, New York. This 
tract of 3,000 acres is three miles from the 
eastern end of Long Island, and is probably 
unique in that, as we are told, it has been in 
the possession of the same family for nearly 
300 years, or since the time of its purchase 
from the Indians for “ten coats of trading 
cloath.” It is now maintained as a general 
farm and preserve, with “a pleasing succes- 
sion of rolling meadows, thick coverts, stately 
trees, lakes and grassy marshes.” This re- 
markable island has been the immemorial 
home of fish hawks, and is now thought to 
harbor upwards of 200 of their massive nests. 
Moreover, these gigantic structures are reared 
‘with absolute freedom, in almost every con- 
ceivable situation, upon the shifting sands of 
the beach, upon great rocks, in trees or even 
upon the gable end of a deserted barn or shed. 
The author shows a nest built on a fence-post 
and another on a telegraph pole, while in parts 
of Connecticut these neighborly birds have 
often taken kindly to the old cart wheel 
reared aloft for their special benefit on the top 
of a high pole. 
Ospreys are model parents, friendly to man, 
and exceedingly attractive at all times. Many 
characteristic attitudes in both young and 
adult are described and figured by Mr. Abbott, 
such as flying up the wind in returning to the 
nest, detouring, repeating and often alighting 
on any favorite perch other than the nest. 
Like other birds, they hold closely to the perch, 
upon which habit has fixed. 
Mr. Abbott never saw the parents sprinkle 
their young with water, but Allen, an earlier 
observer of this species, found that they oc- 
casionally brought fresh seaweed to their 
eyrie. “Similarly, I have sincere doubts,” 
says the writer, whether the “grateful shade, 
over the young, of the parent’s outstretched 
wings, is not more accidental than inten- 
