Book News and Reviews 



175 



The above sections are again subdi- 

 vided and have convenient subtitles to 

 catch the eye, while a feature new in this 

 edition is the closing of each new section 

 with a bibliography of the more impor- 

 tant articles bearing upon that particular 

 subject of which it treats, and with a sort 

 of an examination paper for the benefit of 

 the student. The bibliographies, or 

 'References,' will prove a boon to those 

 who wish to dip deeper into any of the 

 subjects, and are the cream of the lit- 

 erature. We may not dwell deeply upon 

 the merits of each of the chapters, but 

 we are under the impression that the 

 section on 'The Migration of Birds' is 

 perhaps the best essay that has yet been 

 written on this fascinating subject of 

 mystery and contention. The author's 

 wide field experiences enable him to cull 

 the conflicting facts and figures of others, 

 and weave them into harmony with his 

 own ideas, which incline toward setting 

 "instinctive functional activity" as the 

 mainspring of migration. Nor is his 

 statement that "existing phenomena are 

 not therefore 'to be explained solely by 

 observable causes," for the reason that 

 "birds have been migratory for an incal- 

 culable period," likely to be challenged. 

 This essay, illustrated by several instruc- 

 tive maps, is only one of the many gems 

 hidden among the pages of the 'Hand- 

 book,' which is not only a monument to 

 the knowledge and ability of. its author, 

 but a boon to every bird student. — J. D., Jr 



A History of the Birds or Colorado. 

 By William Lutley Sclater. With- 

 erby & Co., 326 High Holborn, London, 

 1912. 8 vo, xxiv, -4- 576 pp., 17 plates, 

 I map. Price, $5. 



This excellent work is published as a 

 memorial to the late General William 

 J. Palmer, so well known as a public- 

 spirited citizen of Colorado, but it is also 

 a memorial to the all-too-brief stay of its 

 author in this country as director of the 

 Colorado College Museum. It is, in fact, 

 a manual of Colorado birds, with keys 

 to orders, families, genera and species, 

 descriptions of plumages, notes on general 

 and local distribution, with a concord- 



ance of previous records of occurrence, 

 and a short account of general and nest- 

 ing habits. 



The illustrations are from photographs,, 

 there is a contour map of Colorado, a. 

 bibliography and a gazetteer of localities 

 mentioned; in short, the work is well 

 planned and well executed, and we can 

 only regret that it could not have been 

 issued in a large enough edition and at a 

 low enough price to be accessible to all 

 students of Colorado bird-life for many 

 years to come. — F. M. C. 



Woodland Idyls. B_v W. S. Blatchley. 

 Indianapolis. Nature Publishing Co., 

 191 2. i6mo, 242 pp., 3 half-tone plates. 



Here is the record of close, intimate 

 communings with Nature, as she revealed 

 herself to the author during various 

 camping trips in western Indiana. Mr. 

 Blatchley's text is "Be ye satisfied with 

 little things," and the pleasure and profit 

 he derives from a study or contemplation 

 of everyday nature round about us is a 

 sermon of reproach to him who thinks 

 more wonderful worlds exist than those 

 we find at our threshold. 



It is not so much what we see, but 

 how we see it, is the lesson this little 

 volume teaches, and we commend it 

 particularly to those whose field of out- 

 door opportunities is geographically lim- 

 ited, but, as this book will show, poten- 

 tially without bounds. — F. M. C. 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The Auk. — The April number of 'The 

 Auk' under the guiding hand of the new 

 editor, Mr. Witmer Stone, is quite up 

 to the standard so long maintained by 

 Dr. J. A. Allen, and contains a large 

 number of interesting articles. A par- 

 ticularly pleasing study of the home life 

 of a bird is Mr. R. T. Moore's 'The 

 Least Sandpiper During the Nesting Sea- 

 son in the Magdalen Islands,' illustrated 

 with several half-tones; and another bit 

 of careful bird study by the late Mr. 

 Frank Bolles, entitled 'Notes on Whip- 

 poorwills and Owls,' has been gleaned 



