Book News and Reviews 



211 



these earlier years of nature photography, 

 is a matter which each worker will want 

 to settle for himself, but in selecting and 

 developing his outfit we know of n better 

 book by which to be guided than Mr. 

 Beetham's.— F. M. C. 



The Face of the Fields. By Dallas 

 Lore Sharp. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 

 Boston and New York. i2mo. 250 pp. 



We have here a series of nine essays, 

 all of which have previously appeared in 

 magazines. They are, however, well- 

 worth perpetuating in book form. Now 

 that we hear from Bradford Torrey — to 

 our great regret — so rarely, Mr. Sharp has 

 become New England's leading 'Nature- 

 writer.' He has the courage of his con- 

 victions and a style quite his own. At 

 its best it is distinctly literary and sincere, 

 but at times it impresses one as being 

 merely clever, too clever perhaps. 



But at least Mr. Sharp holds our in- 

 terest where many an equally good ob- 

 server and thinker might fail to arouse it. 

 We commend particularly to those whose 

 love of nature seeks expression in written 

 words, his chapter on 'The Nature- Writer.' 

 — F. M. C. 



East and West: Comparative Studies of 

 Nature in Eastern and Western States 

 By Stanton Davis Kirkham. G. P. 

 Putnam's Sons, New York and London. 

 1911. 1 2mo., 13 half-tones, x -|- 280 pp. 



'Cape Ann,' 'Cypress Swamps,' 'Chap- 

 paral,' 'Live Oaks,' 'The Giant Cactus 

 Belt' are chapter headings which reveal 

 the extent of countrys on which Mr. 

 Kirkham draws for the eighteen essays in 

 this volurne. It is interesting to have 

 these "Comparative Studies" of the 

 widely different parts of our country, as 

 they impress the nature lover. Mr. 

 Kirkham is too good an American to 

 make his comparisons displeasing, and 

 he sees the best as well as the most char- 

 acteristic features of his surroundings, 

 whether they be on the Atlantic or the 

 Pacific slope, in swamp or desert. His 

 love of nature is genuine, simple and direct 

 and he has a by no means small measure 

 of success in conveying a sense of it to his 

 readers. — F. M. C. 



Recent Publications of the Biolog- 

 ical Survey. — The pubUcations of the 

 Biological Survey can be obtained from 

 the Superintendent of Documents, at 

 Washington, D. C. They contain too 

 much material of value to be reviewed 

 adequately in the space at our command, 

 and we, therefore, refer to th m briefly, 

 with the suggestion that those who are 

 interested make application for copies 

 before the papers mentioned are out of 

 print. 



Circular No. 79, Our Vanishing Shore- 

 birds,' by W. L. McAfee, calls attention 

 to the economic importance and startling 

 decrease of our Sandpipers, Plovers, and 

 other limicoline birds. Mr. McAfee states 

 that the economic value of these birds is 

 so great that their retention on the 

 game list and their destruction by sports- 

 men is a serious loss to agriculture." 



Bulletin No. 37, on the 'Food of the 

 Woodpeckers of the United States,' by F. 

 E. L. Beal, is an exhaustive paper of 64 

 pages, with six plates (five colored) and 

 three text figures, in which the economic 

 value of most of our Woodpeckers is 

 placed on a firm scientific basis. Professor 

 Beal remarks, "Of all the birds that fur- 

 ther the welfare of trees, whether of for- 

 est or orchard. Woodpeckers are the most 

 important. The value of their work in 

 dollars and cents is impossible to cal- 

 culate " 



Circular No. 80, Progress of Game 

 Protection in 1910,' by T. S. Palmer and 

 Henry Oldys, the ninth annual report on 

 this subject, is one of the most important 

 publications issued by the Biological Sur- 

 vey. It contains information much of 

 which is not elsewhere available, and, in 

 addition to its reference value, this au- 

 thoritative summary must indirectly 

 exercise no small influence on mat- 

 ters relating to game protection and 

 propagation. 



In Farmers' Bulletin 456, ' Our Gros- 

 beaks and Their Value to Agriculture' W. 

 L. McAfee concludes: "Few of our birds 

 are to be credited with more good and 

 with fewer evil deeds than the Grosbeaks. 



