410 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. VoL.XXXn. No. 821 



and some physiological relations. In the last 

 chapter are included such timely topics as 

 toxalbiimins, anaphylaxis, haemaggiutinins, 

 and precipitin reactions. 



Aside from numerous statistical tables of 

 great value for reference, commendatory men- 

 tion must be made of the unique bibliography 

 of six hundred titles, itself one of the most 

 useful, as well as the most complete, recent 

 contributions to protein literature. No at- 

 tempt has been made in the text to give work- 

 ing directions for students or investigators, or 

 to furnish a descriptive account of the pro- 

 teins. It is rather their properties, phenom- 

 ena and relationships which are the subject of 

 discussion. As an illustration of the helpful 

 innovations introduced, the description of the 

 acid and basic properties of proteins, and the 

 relation of solubility to the free state or salt 

 formation of proteins may be cited. The 

 presentation is original and suggestive, in 

 contrast with some of the current confusion 

 of ideas on the subject. 



The book is one of the series of Monographs 

 on Biochemistry edited by E. H. Aders Plim- 

 mer and F. G. Hopkins. 



Lafayette B. Mendel 



Sheffield Scientific School, 

 YAiE Univeesitt 



Our Search for a Wilderness, an account of 

 two ornithological expeditions to Venezuela 

 and British Guiana. By Mary Blair Beebe 

 and C. William Beebe. Pp. xix -|- 38Y ; ap- 

 pendices A, B and C. New York, Henry 

 Holt and Co. 



In " our Search for. a Wilderness," Mrs. 

 and Mr. Beebe have amply fulfilled the 

 promise of their earlier book, " Two Bird- 

 lovers in Mexico," and the present volume 

 gives a delightful account of two journeys to 

 northern South America. While the scientific 

 results of these trips (and the collections made 

 in their course) have been fully reported on 

 by the New York Zoological Society, this 

 narrative of the field experiences teems with 

 interesting details of tropical life, and is 

 written with evident enthusiasm and much 

 charm. One closes the book with reluctance, 

 and it can hardly fail to interest the casual 



reader, while to the student of nature, in 

 whatever degree of advancement, every page 

 carries some suggestion or graphically de- 

 scribes some picturesque circumstance. The 

 authors went through their journeys with their 

 senses all on the alert, and the vivid sensa- 

 tions of the humid Tropics are as real as mere 

 words can paint them. 



It is to the bird-lover, however, that the 

 book must make its strongest appeal, and 

 every effort has been made to render the nec- 

 essarily random notes and observations as 

 useful and as accessible as possible, by devoting 

 an appendix to the species of birds observed, 

 and indexing each species, in the text, with a 

 corresponding number. By this reference it 

 is always possible to tell at once what species 

 is under discussion. 



Many exceedingly interesting observations, 

 paying high tribute to the open-mindedness 

 and keen sensations of the observers, relate to 

 the protectiveness, in actual use, of many ap- 

 parently bold and conspicuous color-schemes. 

 The " Owl Butterfly," so long used as an ex- 

 ample of " warning colors," comes into his 

 own, and is shown, photographically, to be a 

 marvelous composite of its rough-barked sanc- 

 tuary on the tree-trunk, the " owl's eye " 

 proving to be, instead of a conspicuous warn- 

 ing eye, a beautifully painted hole in the 

 bark. 



In the appendix giving the local native 

 names of birds, it is interesting to notice the 

 old habit of calling new birds by old home 

 names, on the slender thread of fancied re- 

 semblance, here, as in other English-speaking 

 outposts. Thus the familiar name of the 

 European red-breast, " robin redbreast," is 

 given in North America to a large thrush, in 

 Jamaica to a tiny crimson-throated king- 

 fisher (Todus viridis), and in British Guiana 

 to a ground-starling! In this same appendix 

 are noted vernacular names of birds not given 

 in the list of species observed, and we are left 

 in the dark as to the identity of such inter- 

 esting-sounding specie's as " four-winged 

 cuckoo " and " speculum parrakeet." 



One of the best chapters is the one relating 

 to " A Gold Mine in the Wilderness " al- 

 though, in the narrative, the pay-streak seems 



