512 Recently published Ornithological Works. 
appears to us to be too much given to the fashionable practice 
of making new " subspecies/^ The various forms of Parus 
are, no doubt, not easy to deal with, but the diflPerences 
between the local forms are by no means constant, and it is 
very difficult, if not impossible in many cases, to assign 
specimens to a particular form without a knowledge of their 
localities. 
Mr. Hellmayr reviews the local forms of P. montanus, 
P. communis, and P. ater, and separates some new subspecies. 
The author also shows that Turdus orientalis Mad. is 
intermediate between T. torquatus typicus and T. t. alpestris. 
89. Herrich's ' Home Life of Wild Birds.' 
[The Home Life of Wild Birds : a New Method of the Study and 
Photography of Birds. By Francis Hobart Herrick. With 141 Original 
Illustrations from Nature by the Autlior. 4to. London, 1901. Pp. xx, 
149. Putnam's. Price 10s. 6d] 
Mr. Herrick's studies have been chiefly carried out in Central 
T^ew Hampshire and relate for the most part to the more 
common American species. They are, however, none the less 
welcome on that account, and portray with great accuracy 
the birds and their habits at the nest. "Being desirous of 
shewing them as they really are and their behaviour in the 
open air rather than under constrained conditions or in 
cages, the author contrived a new method of study, which he 
practised for two summers. Instead of going to the birds, 
he virtually made the birds come to him, and ensured their 
taraeness before taking their portraits. In the case of some 
twenty-six species the nest was first watched to determine the 
period and details of incubation ; the young, when hatched, 
were next carefully observed, and, when they were considered 
old enough, the nest and its surroundiugs were often bodily 
removed and set up at some convenient spot, where a movable 
tent was erected to screen the observer and his camera. Special 
chapters on '' Fear in Birds ^' and '• Taming without a Cage " 
shew how soon the birds became familiarized with their new 
surroundings ; while the result of no less than five or six 
hours' daily watching was the aquisitiou of a fine series of 
