THE OSPREY. 35 



The Home Life | of Wild Birds | A New Method of | the Study and | 

 Photography of Birds | By | Francis Herrick | with 141 Original Illustrations 

 from Nature | by the Author | G. P. Putnam's Sons | The Knickerbocker 

 Press I New York and London | 1901. [Quarto pp. i-xx, 1-1-iS, price i?2.o0] 



The purpose of this handsome volume is so well defined in the preface that 

 we will let the author speak for himself. "To describe and illustrate a new 

 means of studying animal behavior, and to record what has been learned by 

 its aid concerning the lives of some of our common birds is the main purpose 

 of this volume. It is a popular study of birds in action and is chiefly con- 

 cerned with the homes or nests and their occupants. 



"While the desire has been present to make these pages readable, no effort 

 has been spared to render them accurate. Many of the observations are new; 

 nearly all are original, and every statement of fact is believed to be true as it 

 stands. 



"The wish to give a human interest to every phase of animal activity is 

 of very ancient orgin, and has done too much already in spreading the seed of 

 popular error and superstition concerning annimal life and lore. Animals 

 should be studied as animals which they are, and not as human beings which 

 they have never been, and are not likely ever to become. 



"The constant reading of human attributes into the activities of animals 

 is to begin at the wrong end, and is a drag on the progress of accurate knowl- 

 edge. We should first study the animal as far as possible from its own stand- 

 point, and learn with exactness the facts of its life, taking care not to press 

 analogies far farther than the observed facts will warrant. Ignorance of ana- 

 tomy as well as of physiology, and the desire to find in the doings of animals 

 a marvelous counterpart of human powers of intelligence and reason have 

 already stocked our libraries with fables, anecdotes, and stories, many of which 

 make delightful -reading, but posesses little value for the modern student. 



"The first duty of the narrator of natural as well as civil historj' is to tell 

 the truth, and to the naturalists belongs also the privilege of showing that the 

 lives of the higher animals, when fully and clearly revealed, possess a more 

 vital interest than the puppet dressed in human clothes, however admirable 

 the latter may be, as a work of art. 



"I trust that the reader will not misunderstand these remarks. Is it denied 

 that animals possess intelligence or any powers of reason? Not at all! Such 

 questions depend largely upon our definitions of words, and without fresh 

 observations are usually fruitless of result. What is criticized is the gross 

 anthropomorphism which characterizes much that is written upon the actions 

 of animals. If I am an offender in this direction, I hope it is only in a minor 

 degree, I am anxious to attribute to the animal every power which it is ac- 

 tually known to possess, and look for the roots of human instinct and intelli- 



