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Reviews.



“ mammals,” the author frequently referring to “ birds and

animals,” as though the former were quite distinct from the

animal kingdom, instead of being quite as much animals as are

any four-footed beasts. But this fault is perhaps hardly worth

noticing ; a much more serious one is to be found on page 32,

where we are told that “ The Hemipodes make a huge mound of

leaves and grasses, in which they bury their eggs and leave them

there to hatch.” Doubtless this is merely a slip of the pen, the

author having intended to write “ Megapodes,” but it is never¬

theless an error which is very misleading. Again the author

refers to the male Ostrich’s numerous wives, but we believe that

the truly wild Ostrich is strictly monogamous although often

stated to be polygamous. When domesticated it may occasionally

become polygamous like some other domestic animals.


Mr. Dodge’s book is thoroughly well got up and does great

credit to both author and publisher.


“CANARY AND CAGE-BIRD LIFE.”


Most of our members have for many years been familiar with that

excellent popular weekly journal The Feathered World, and have watched

its growth from a very small to a very large paper, dealing with all kinds of

poultry, pigeons, and cage-birds.


Those interested only in small birds were perhaps sometimes bored

by the amount of matter relating to domestic poultry and the numerous

pictures of, to them, unnatural and unlovely pigeons with over-grown

crops, or beaks too small to feed their own young.


So much has this paper grown that it was found impossible to deal

with all the matter received, and it has been found necessary to divide it

into two separate papers, the one dealing with poultry and pigeons under

the original title, and the other with cage-birds under the name of Canary

and Cage-bird Lije to be published every Friday at the price of one penny.

We are favoured with the first few numbers of this latter paper which

contains much that is useful to cage-bird keepers, and we can only say that

we wish it the success that its parent, The Feathered World has attained

nnder the able management of Mrs. Comyns-Lewer.



