May 24, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



577 



existing conditions from time to time will 

 permit . 



Work in the Coal Measures of the State 

 has been in progress for two summei*s, and 

 Volume I. of the Report is now almost ready 

 for publication. Other volumes will appear 

 at irregular intervals. Those alreadj' under 

 preparation are : One on Coal, Oil and 

 Gas: one on tlie Vertebrate Paleontology 

 of the State ; and one on the Salt and 

 Oypsum deposits of Kansas. 



F. H. Snow, 

 Chancellor University of Kamas. 



Lawrence, Kansas, 



April 20, 1895. 



SCIEXTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 ■Our Xative Birds of Song and Beauty. By H. 

 Xehrling. 4° , 36 colored plates from orig- 

 inals by EiDGWAY, GoERiNG and Mutzel. 

 Published by Geo. Brumder, Milwaukee. 

 To be completed in !(> parts, 81.00 each. 

 Part eleven of this excellent work, carry- 

 ing it nearly half through the second vol- 

 ume, has been delivered to subscribers. It 

 is enough praise to say that the high stand- 

 ard of the tirst voluiue is maintained. Mr. 

 Nehrling is a field naturalist of the kind 

 who deem a bird in the bush worth two in 

 the hand. He loves everything in the woods 

 and fields, and in telling about the birds 

 and their lives he tells also of the trees and 

 flowers. 



The aim of the book is to give trust- 

 worthy accounts, in popular stj'le, of the 

 haunts and habits of our birds. Occasionally 

 it does more and introduces a new fact of 

 scientific interest, as when the breeding of 

 the Pine Grosbeak (Plnicola) is recorded 

 for northern Wisconsin. On the other hand, 

 it is not always down to date. For instance, 

 under the Black Rosy Finch (Leuco-ificte 

 atrata), the statement is quoted from Ridg- 

 way that " nothing has yet been learned as 

 to its range during the breeding season." 

 As a matter of fact, the species is common 



in summer in the higher parts of the 

 Salmon River Mountains in Idaho, where 

 it was obtained by the reviewer five yeai-s 

 ago (see Xorth American Fauna, No. 5, 

 1891, 102). Similarly, the Gray-crowned 

 Ro.sy Finch (L. tephrocotit) is said to be 'a 

 resident of the interior of British America, 

 near or in the Rockj- ^lountains,' and fur- 

 ther, that ' none seem to breed in our ter- 

 ritory.' If Mr. Xehrling had consulted 

 the ' Report on the Ornithology of the 

 Death Valley Expedition,' by Dr, A, K. 

 Fisher, he would have found the state- 

 ment that this species " is a common sum- 

 mer resident in the higher portions of the 

 AVhite Mountains and the Sierra Nevada in 

 eastern and southern California," where it 

 breeds abundantly and where nearly 40 

 specimens were secured bj^ the expedition 

 (North Am. Fauna, No. 7, 1893, 82). 



The plates are of two kinds, some show- 

 a single species in appropriate surround- 

 ings ; others showing a number of species 

 grouped together on a background of land- 

 scape or dense vegetation. The reproduc- 

 tions, while amply sufficient for purposes of 

 identification, are evidently inferior to the 

 oi-iginals, the number of stones used in 

 printing being too small, and the workman- 

 ship not of the best. Bj- far the most ef- 

 fective picture in the second volume is one 

 of a group of winter birds — Evening Gros- 

 beak, Pine Grosbeak, Redpoll, White- 

 winged Crossbill, Nuthatch and Chickadee 

 — on top of a spruce tree laden with snow. 

 The combination of colore is striking and 

 is aided by the red berries of a giant moun- 

 tain ash, which, by the waj', forgot to drop 

 its leaves ! Among tlie earlier plates of 

 high merit, both in conception and execu- 

 tion, are several by Robert Ridgway that 

 give charming glimpses of birds in charac- 

 terLstic attitudes and surroundings. Of 

 these, the Golden-crowned Kinglet, Pro- 

 thonotary Warl)ler. and Canon Wren are 

 among the best. 



