Book News and Reviews 



379 



to those for whom sea and shore have 

 even a stronger fascination than the 

 forest primeval. The numerous photo- 

 graphic illustrations of more than usually 

 difficult subjects are admirable. — F. M. C 



Stowe Notes, Letters and Verses. By 

 Edward Martin Taber. Boston and 

 New York. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 

 19 13. 8vo. 



The author of this intimate, personal 

 record of close sympathetic association 

 with nature lived from 1887 to within a 

 few months of his death, in 1896, at 

 Stowe, New Hampshire. There he came 

 in search of health, but, if his quest failed, 

 we find no note of failure in this volume 

 compiled from his journals and letters. 

 Rather does every page reflect an artist's 

 joy in the beauties of nature, and a 

 naturalist's keen interest in wild life, 

 particularly birds. Where, for example, 

 will one find a more eloquent tribute to 

 the song of the Hermit Thrush than is 

 contained in the following lines: "When 

 I am dead and buried, or dead and 

 burned, I think something of what was 

 once me will respond at the first spring 

 song of the thrushes. It is the immortal 

 voice that speaks to something dumb 

 and nameless in the human breast, and 

 is answered by a dumb and nameless 

 yearning. 



"It conveys a kind of immortality 

 upon the listener — it comes out of an 

 immeasurable past, and carries the soul 

 into an immeasurable future. They sing 

 in blissful eternity. 



"Wonderful notes! 

 Like the precious moments in life and 

 in art that are thrilling with emotion, full 

 to the brink of tears, notes so varied, 

 clear, and full, or faint as an echo lisping 

 softly, like a comment on the thrilling 

 sweetness of the last, sometimes high 

 almost to shrillness, and again uttered 

 low and with a melodiousness ineffable. 



"It is not so much like the answering 

 notes of birds, as like a converse of 

 happy spirits. 



"There's nothing of the mirth of bird 

 songs in this one, neither joyousness or 



hurry, but something serene and inef- 

 fably sweet, that is neither joy, nor sor- 

 row. The notes fall deliberately, as if 

 there were a consciousness on the part 

 of the singers of the precious quality of 

 their utterances — golden drops from the 

 very fount of all sad delight and chastened 

 joy." 



Possibly these glowing words, so 

 obviously the outpouring of a full heart, 

 reveal to us the character of their author 

 even more clearly than they do the charm 

 of the birds' song of which he writes. — - 

 F. M. C. 



The Phylogenetic Value of Color 

 Characters in Birds. By Witmer 

 Stone. Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., 

 XV. 2nd. Ser, 1912, 313-319; 1 pi. 



Dr. Stone, in that fair, impartial man- 

 ner which characterizes his writings, here 

 calls attention to certain inconsistencies 

 on the part of the systematic ornitholo- 

 gist, who, in attempting to segregrate 

 closely allied species in different genera, 

 uses now one character, now another, 

 ignoring color; when, in fact, it may be 

 of greater phylogenetic value than varia- 

 tions in the shape and size of bill or 

 relative length of rectrices on remiges. 



"Furthermore," he truly remarks, "the 

 tendency [among systematists] is con- 

 stantly toward a greater refinement of 

 genera, differences are being magnified 

 and resemblances neglected, and search 

 is always being made for slight so-called 

 structural differences and not for char- 

 acters which will bind several genera 

 together into one genetic phylum." — 

 F. M. C. 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The Auk. — With the October issue, 

 this journal completes its thirtieth year 

 of publication, easily maintaining dur- 

 ing this considerable period its prominent 

 place among a host of ornithological 

 journals the world over. Attention may 

 well be called, in this and in other issues, 

 to the valuable department of 'Recent 

 Literature' containing reviews and biblio- 



