OCTOBEB 30, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



657 



plinary form. They have quite generally fol- 

 lowed a plan which has so good a warrant as 

 the example of the Johns Hopkins University. 

 The biological work was there developed along 

 zoological lines while the botanical remained 

 in a condition perhaps to be termed inadequate. 

 It certainly seems better to place some lines of 

 instructions upon a fairly adequate basis than 

 to make all inadequate by trying to cover them 

 all. If geology cannot be taught as a matter of 

 discipline without sacrificing biological, chemi- 

 cal or physical instruction, should it be excluded 

 altogether? I cannot think so, geology has a 

 value as information and may be so imparted 

 as not to give the student any undue sense of 

 having learned all that can be learned. That 

 it is so treated in many of our colleges and that 

 the results are good I wish to bear most em- 

 phatic testimony. Few institutions can feel 

 that they are accomplishing all that they would 

 like to do. It is, however, true that in many a 

 small college teachers of real power and inspi- 

 ration are sacrificing the opportunity to make 

 themselves known and recognized in their 

 sciences in order that they may make their in- 

 struction more adequate. That they are suc- 

 ceeding is clearly evidenced by the steady 

 stream of men who are passing from their in- 

 stitutions in the graduate courses of the univer- 

 sities. L. W. Chaney, Jr. 

 Caeleton College, 



NOETHPIELD, MiKN. 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 Life Histories of North American Birds, from the 

 Parrots to the Grackles, with special reference 

 to their breeding habits and eggs. By 

 Charles Bendire, Captain and Brevet 

 Major TJ. S. A. (Eetired). Smithsonian 

 Contributions to Knowledge. Large 4to, pp. 

 518, col. pis. 7. Dated 1895 ; published Sep- 

 tember, 1896. 



Probably no work on American birds since 

 Audubon's Ornithological Biographies has been 

 looked for with greater eagerness than the sec- 

 ond volume of Bendire' s ' Life Histories of 

 North American Birds. ' The first volume was 

 a surprise, both to ornithologists and to the pub- 

 lic. , A good book was expected, but no one 

 was prepared for the great mass of new infor- 



mation it contained or for the high technical 

 knowledge shown in its preparation. The 

 colored plates of eggs were the finest ever pro- 

 duced, and the demand for the work was so 

 great that, although sold at the relatively high 

 price of $7.50, the edition was soon exhausted. 

 Naturally, the appearance of the second volume 

 has been anxiously awaited by all classes of 

 bird lovers from the technical ornithologist to 

 the popular observer. On running over its 

 handsome pages one is impressed by the fact 

 that it is even better than the first, and that 

 the plates also, if possible, are superior. 



The scope of the work is comprehensive. 

 All of the birds of the American Continent 

 occurring north of Mexico are included. The 

 first volume contained 416 large quarto pages 

 and 12 colored plates, and treated of the Grouse, 

 Pigeons, Hawks and Owls — 146 species and sub- 

 species in all. The present volume comprises 

 518 pages and 7 colored plates of eggs. It 

 treats of the Parrots, Cuckoos, Anis, Roadrun- 

 ner, Trogon, Kingfishers, Woodpeckers, Night- 

 hawks, Poor Wills, Swifts, Hummingbirds, Fly- 

 catchers, Larks, Magpies, Jays, Crows, Orioles 

 and Blackbirds— in all about 200 species and sub- 

 species. The classification and nomenclature 

 of the A. O. U. Check List are followed and 

 references are given to the first name of the 

 species and to the combination adopted. Fol- 

 lowing this brief synonomy is a complete con- 

 cordance to the numbers the species bears in 

 each of the five check lists from Baird's original 

 list of 1855 to the American Ornithologists' 

 Union list of 1895. The geographic range of 

 the species is then summarized in a brief para- 

 graph and is afterward given in greater detail, 

 along with the dates of arrival at different points 

 in its migratory range, the relative abundance 

 of the species in different localities, and the 

 local names by which it is known. Much at- 

 tention is given to food and breeding habits, the 

 accounts of which are graphically written and, 

 as a rule, form the greater part of the biog- 

 raphies. Except in the very few instances 

 in which the eggs are unknown, the history 

 closes with a description of the nest and eggs, 

 with average, maximum and minimum measure- 

 ments (both in millimeters and inches). 



The greater part of Major Bendire' s life has 



