636 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 23. 



small fruit and gi-ain." The same sweep- 

 ing ignorance and prejudice characterizes 

 her account of the crow, of which she says : 

 "This is another bird that you may hunt ft-om 

 your woods, shoot (if you can) in the fields 

 and destroy with poisoned grain. Here he 

 has not a single good mark against his 

 name. He is a cannibal, devotiring both 

 the eggs and young of insect-destroying 

 song-birds." As a matter of fact, the eggs 

 and young of wild birds and poultry to- 

 gether form less than one per cent, of the 

 food of the crow, as determined by the ex- 

 amination of about a thousand stomachs in 

 the TJ. S. Department of Agriculture. So 

 with grain ; sprouting corn forms only two 

 per cent, of the entire food, most of the 

 corn eaten by crows being waste grain 

 picked up, chiefly in winter, in fields and 

 other places where its consumption is no 

 loss to the farmer. On the other hand, 

 mice and other injurious mammals form 

 1^ per cent, of the food of crows ; and in- 

 sects no less than 23^ per cent. 



The colored plates are execrable. Most 

 of them are cheap, coarse, dauby carica- 

 tui'es, taken second-hand from Audubon, 

 who would turn in his grave if he saw them. 

 In addition to these, there are five uncol- 

 ored process reproductions of water birds 

 and bii-ds of prey. The latter are from Dr. 

 Fisher's Saivks and Oivls of the United States 

 (published by the TJ. S. Department of 

 Agriculture) and, though poor, are by far 

 the best illustrations in the book. 



Excepting the plates, the book is neatly 

 gotten up and well printed. A novel and 

 useful feature is the insertion of the com- 

 mon name of the bird in heavy-face type at 

 the top corner of the page, in the place usu- 

 ally occupied by the pagination. 



On the whole, Mrs. Wright's ' Birdcraft ' 

 may be recommended as a source of pleas- 

 ure and assistance to the many lovers of 

 nature who are tryiag to learn more about 

 our common birds. C. H. M. 



Anleituny zur 2IicyochemischenAnaly.se: Von 

 H. Behrens, Professor an der Polj-tech- 

 nischen Schule in Delft. Mit 92 Figuren 

 ini Text. Hamburg, Leopold Voss. 1895. 

 224 pp. 



Professor Behrens first wrote this book in 

 French, and it was published in 1893. An 

 English translation by Professor Judd ap- 

 peared soon after. That the author pub- 

 lished a German edition so soon speaks for 

 the value of the book. Professor Behrens' 

 text-book is the only one, as indeed he is 

 the chief authority, on this new and im- 

 portant subject. The first half of the book 

 describes the reactions of the elements, 

 giving plates of the crystalline precipitates 

 as seen thi-ough the microscope. Part 

 Second treats of the systematic analysis of 

 water, rocks, ores, alloys, and compounds of 

 the rare elements. The chapter on the 

 micro-chemical examination of rocks, by 

 study of slides and of powdered rock is very 

 interesting ; indeed, for petrographic re- 

 search the manual is invaluable, but it is 

 also of great value to the metallurgist in the 

 study of ores and alloys, and to the general 

 chemist in the ordinary run of chemical 

 analysis. E. Eenouf. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 THE AMEEICAJJ ASSOCIATION. 



The preliminary announcement of the 

 forty-fourth meeting of the American As- 

 sociation for the Advancement of Science, 

 to be held in Springfield, Mass., August 28 

 to September 7, 1895, has now been issued. 

 The arrangements promise an interesting 

 and successftil meeting. 



The first general session will be held on 

 the morning of Thursday the 29th. This 

 will give Friday, Monday, Tuesday and 

 Wednesday as the four daj^s entirely de- 

 voted to the reading of papers in the sec- 

 tions. Saturday will be given to excursions 

 in the vicinity of Springfield, and more dis- 



