jANtTAET 29, 1897.] 



SCmRCE. 



189 



teacher it ought to give admirable results. Each 

 subject is considered from so many points of 

 view that it seems scarcely possible that the 

 pupil could lose interest in the work or fail to 

 see the intimate relation between the great 

 number of natural phenomena and the daily 

 affairs of life. The pupil's attention is held 

 throughout the course of study by interesting 

 him in some aspect of nature especially notice- 

 able during the different seasons. To illustrate, 

 the plan contemplates the following subjects 

 for study during the month of October: In zo- 

 ology, the migration of animals; in botany, the 

 distribution of seeds ; in geography, areas of 

 crops sown in the autumn; in physics, evapora- 

 tion and condensation ; in chemistry, ash, or- 

 ganic matter, fluid and dry solid in common 

 fruits ; in meteorology, rainfall and humidity ; 

 in astronomy, distribution of sunshine ; in geol- 

 ogy, erosion and sedimentation, the transport- 

 ing power of water ; in mineralogy, evapora- 

 tion of water from the soils, and sand and 

 granite. 



The notes composing Part Two of the work, 

 though, perhaps, rather too rhetorical in treat- 

 ment, present to the teacher directions for the 

 construction and use of apparatus, descriptions 

 of experiments and suggestive examples illus- 

 trating the tremendous scale upon which the 

 operations of nature are conducted. While in 

 most cases the directions are sufficiently explicit, 

 much is left, and properly, too, to the indi- 

 vidual teacher to plan and execute as circum- 

 stances may require. 



Few teachers realize how much can be made 

 of nature study if properly conducted, and, as 

 Prof. Jackman's plan does not require for its 

 execution that the teacher shall be specially 

 trained in the sciences, it is hoped that it may 

 be widely adopted. 



Chaeles Wright Dodge. 



Univeesity op Rochester. 



Papers presented to the World's Congress on Or- 

 nithology. Edited by Mrs. E. Irene Rood, 

 under the direction of Dr. Elliott Coues. 

 Chicago. 1896. 8vo. Pp. 208. $5.00. 

 The ' Congress ' at which were presented the 

 twenty-seven papers printed in this volume 

 took place in Chicago in October, 1893. Invi- 



tations to it had been widely distributed, signed 

 by a committee of nearly a dozen persons, of 

 whom Dr. Coues is the only one well known as 

 an ornithologist. In the invitation it was an- 

 nounced that the congress was to ' treat of 

 birds from the standpoint of the scientist, the 

 economist and the humanitarian,' and the sci- 

 entist was warned that the audiences would be 

 characterized by ' assthetic feelings and humane 

 sympathy rather than intellectual apprehen- 

 sion.' Under these circumstances it is not 

 surprising that the papers show a very wide 

 range of merit, nor that among their writers 

 there are but few ornithologists of much promi- 

 nence. 



Sevei'al of the articles are deserving of cor- 

 dial praise. Mr. D. P. Ingraham, for instance, 

 gives a very interesting account of the Amer- 

 ican Flamingo, a bird that few other naturalists 

 have seen within the limits of the United 

 States, where to-day it is restricted to the inac- 

 cessible, shallow bays of the extreme southern 

 coast of Florida. Another valuable contribu- 

 tion is that on the changes of habits of some 

 birds in Maine, by Manly Hardy, whose many 

 years of exceptionallj' careful observation have 

 enabled him to narrate a number of instances 

 of adaptation to changed conditions. Some- 

 what comparable with Mr. Hardy's notes are 

 those of Mr. J. H. Bowles, upon instinct in 

 birds, though of less importance, for the reason 

 that reliable facts of this sort are far more read- 

 ily attainable than such as Mr. Hardy's, which, 

 from the nature of the case, are seldom af- 

 forded save by the life-long experience of a sin- 

 gle observer. 



The late John S. Cairns contributed a short 

 sketch, giving a good account of the breeding 

 haunts of the Black-throated Blue Warblers on 

 the mountains of western North Carolina. In 

 mentioning the fact that in the spring these 

 birds are already engaged in nest-building at a 

 time when- northern-bound individuals of the 

 species are still migrating through the valleys 

 below, he incidentally referred to them as a 

 'local race.' This calls forth the following 

 editorial foot-note: "As this subspecies does 

 not appear to have been named, it may be 

 called Dendroeca ccerulescens cairnsi. — E. C." 

 Readers of the book may be interested to learn 



