406 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 665 



ment of color patterns, relative length of wing, 

 tail and feet, the form of the bill, etc. (the 

 latter features often combined with conspicu- 

 ous resemblances in color markings), are com- 

 mon, not only in birds which inhabit different 

 continental areas, but in other classes of ani- 

 mals, indicating that the range of differentia- 

 tion is limited, and that repetition is neces- 

 sary; such repetitions have no necessary 

 genetic relationship, being for the most part 

 adaptive. 



In the three families Tyrannidse, Pipridse 

 and Cotingidfe, there are several transposi- 

 tions of genera from one to the other, on 

 the basis of newly acquired evidence respect- 

 ing their affinities. There are also several 

 important changes in nomenclature, as where 

 Procnias takes the place of Casmarinchos, 

 etc., and current purisms are abandoned for 

 the original forms of names. 



As in the previous volumes of this series, 

 the treatment is strictly systematic and 

 technical, and shows the author to be the 

 master of his subject, while his methods are 

 eminently worthy of emulation. With this 

 volume his great task is half completed, and 

 it is the wish of all systematic ornithologists 

 that he may have the health and strength to 

 finish in due time this vast undertaking, 

 which easily takes rank as the most important 

 contribution to American systematic ornith- 

 ology yet undertaken. 



J. A. A. 



Annals of the Lowell Ohservatory. Volume 

 III. : Observations of the Planet Mars dur- 

 ing the Oppositions of 1894, 1896, 1898, 

 1901 and 1903 made at Flagstaff, Arizona. 

 Percival Lowell, Director of the observa- 

 tory. ' 1905. Pp. xiv-f 293 + 60. 4to. 

 In the body of this book are 293 pages, with 

 all the details of observations during the op- 

 positions of 1894, 1896, 1900-1 and 1903 

 treated separately, and subdivided into eleven 

 chapters. The first chapter under each op- 

 position deals with general matters pertaining 

 to methods and dates of observation. Each 

 of the other ten chapters gives the details of 

 the observed surface features in order of longi- 



tude from Syrtis Major back to the two 

 Syrtes. 



Nearly all the observations were made by 

 the director himself, and are described in- 

 dividually and relatively in such manner as 

 shows a symmetry of method and similarity 

 of purpose running through work on all the 

 four oppositions. The observations made by 

 Mr. Douglass and Mr. Drew, while being 

 narrated in the same methodical sequence, 

 have been published as the supplement of 

 sixty pages. These embody the entire report 

 on the opposition of 1898-9, and an auxiliary 

 report on the opposition of 1900-1. 



While there are many illustrations scat- 

 tered through the volume, yet the major por- 

 tion is given in the appendix of twelve 

 plates inserted between pages 266 and 267, 

 under the title : " 1903 Drawings of Mars, be- 

 ing selected reproductions direct from the 

 record-book Views from- the Globe made from 

 Observations of the Opposition " — whatever 

 that may mean. Following these plates, pages 

 267-281, is a complete " Index of Names on 

 Maps and Globes of Mars " inclusive of an 

 index to volumes one and two of the Annals. 



" Of the making of books, there is no end " 

 is a dictum of about twenty centuries ago, and 

 a thousandfold more true since the advent of 

 printing than then. That this book is a hand- 

 some example of the " art preservative " no one 

 can deny: large type, leaded; extra wide mar- 

 gins, with marginal headings; typography for 

 the most part ' even, and press-work superb : 

 the paper, heavy plate. It is a pleasure to 

 read such books, whatever be their contents. 

 It is all the greater pleasure when one finds 

 such a piquancy of style, and such a wealth of 

 detail of observation coupled with such ex- 

 plicitness of statement through so many pages, 

 concerning objects which so many other able 

 astronomers claim are either nearly invisible 

 or totally non-existent. The writer of this 

 review is as ignorant as any astronomer can. 

 well be of the objectivity of all these claimed 

 observances on the face of our neighboring 

 planet. During seventeen years' experience as 

 an observational astronomer he has never had 

 an opportunity of seeing Mars through a larger 

 aperture than 4".5. That he was requested 



