Book Pews and Reviews 
A History or Birps. By W. P. Pycrart, 
ZoGlogical Department, British Mu- 
seum. Methuen & Co., 30 Essex Street, 
W. C. London, 1910. 8vo., xxxit458 
pages; 37 plates, 50 text cuts. Price ro 
shillings, sixpence. 
The reviewer who would prepare an 
adequate notice of this volume has before 
him a task of no small proportions. 
Correspondingly great, therefore, has been 
Mr. Pycraft’s effort to present in one 
volume a summary of what is significant 
in the history of bird-life. Furthermore, 
he may claim both the delights and the 
difficulties of the pioneer, for we recall 
no other bird book of this kind. It is true, 
we have had books on migration, nest- 
ing, song, form and function, molt, home- 
life, etc., while Darwin, Wallace, and 
other philosophic naturalists, have made 
extended use of birds to illustrate various 
theories in evolution. But Mr. Pycraft 
alone has attempted to present in one 
volume a detailed picture of the bird, in 
relation to its environment, and no one 
unfamiliar with the mass and character of 
the literature to be digested in preparation 
for such a work can realize the magnitude 
of the undertaking. Let it be said at once 
that Mr. Pycraft has been surprisingly 
successful. It is not to be expected that 
the work should throughout be of equal 
merit. The specialist in distribution, 
migration, and nest-life, for example. 
could find room for improvement in the 
chapters on these subjects, just as Mr. 
Pycraft would find ground for criticism in 
chapters which these specialists might 
prepare on his department of structural 
adaptations. It is, however, both natural 
and, in this case, certainly desirable, that 
an author should give greatest attention 
to those phases of a subject in which he is 
especially interested, and of which he has 
a knowledge based on personal research. 
We wish it were possible to review this 
important work in detail, for it is an 
eloquent exposition of the kind of orni- 
thology which every one who has at heart 
the advancement of the science of birds 
will wish to see developed; but at present 
we'can only indicate its contents by 
appending a list of chapter headings: 
Chapters I-III. Introductory and Phy- 
logenetic. The general characters of birds 
and their position in the animal kindgom. 
IV. Gcological Distribution and Haunts. 
V. Seasonal Life. VI. Migration. VII. 
Relations to Animate Environment. VIII. 
Peculiar Inter-relations (with other forms 
of life). IX. Phases of Social Life. X. 
The Relations of the Sexes. XI. Repro- 
duction—WNidification. XII. Concerning 
Eggs. XIII, XIV. Care of Offspring. 
XV. Nesting Birds and What They Teach. 
XVI. The Life-History of Birds—An 
Gcological Summary. XVII. Variation: 
Continuous and Discontinuous. XVIII. 
Acquired Characters. XIX. Natural Se- 
lection as Applied to Birds. XX. Artifi- 
cial Selection. XXI. Sexual Selection. 
XXII. Isolation. XXIII-XXV. Struc- 
tural and Functional Adaptations. XXVI. 
Convergent Evolution and Parallel Devel- 
opment. The breadth, importance, and 
unusual character of Mr. Pycraft’s book 
is clearly evident by this mere statement 
of the field it covers, and we very cordi- 
ally commend it to every one interested 
in birds in nature. They will unquestion- 
ably find in it much that is new to them, 
and, quite as unquestionably, it will give 
them a new conception of the possibilities 
of bird study.—F. M. C. 
BIRDS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. By ARTHUR 
TREZEVANT WAYNE, Honorary Curator 
of Birds in the Charleston Museum. 
With an Introduction by the Editor. 
Charleston, S. C., 1910. 8vo., xxit254 
pages, I map. 
Since 1883, Mr. Wayne has devoted 
himself almost continuously to field 
work among the birds of the coast of 
South Carolina, and this volume is 
based largely on his labors in that 
region. In order, however, that the book 
might contain a complete list of South 
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