No. 400.) REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 321 
weight of food taken in a day; but he will find a charming study of 
the personality of the bird, and many graceful or playful reflections 
by the way. 
The illustrations are from colored photographs, reproduced with 
an unusually pleasing effect. They represent various young mocking- 
birds in the attitudes described in the text. R. H. 
Our Native Birds. — This is a book! which should be within the 
reach of every school-teacher and of every person interested in pre- 
serving for future generations the wild life which forms so large a 
part of the attraction which nature exerts. The author begins with 
some of the statistics, which are now only too easy to obtain, of the 
steady decrease of song and game birds, and explains with unusual 
fairness the causes of this diminution. He gives full weight to a 
consideration very generally overlooked, namely, the destruction of 
shrubbery and the draining of wet places, incidental to the growth 
of towns and cities. Subsequent chapters are devoted to a descrip- 
tion of the means by which we may prevent the destruction of birds 
and restock places from which they may have been driven. The 
better enforcement of the existing laws, or the enactment of new 
ones, particularly the introduction of gun license to reduce indis- 
criminate shooting, the spread of interest and knowledge through 
Audubon societies and the popular magazines and books, are urged 
with warmth, and at the same time with judgment. [Interesting 
advice as to planting shrubs, vines, and trees, furnishing water for 
bathing and drinking, and allowing waste places to grow up with 
- something that will furnish food and cover, is evidence of the prac- 
tical character of the author's mind. The vexed question of the 
English sparrow's position is also treated with fairness, though many 
readers will take well-grounded exception to the method recommended 
for its destruction, vzz,, the use of poison. The subject of hunting 
and of encouraging boys to hunt is hardly treated in a manner con- 
sistent with the tone of genuine sympathy for animals evident in the 
rest of the book. Throughout the book there are frequent references 
to authorities. 
There is a marked absence of literary skill, both in the style and 
in the arrangement of the matter; it is not a book that one would 
read for amusement or for pleasure, but for those in search of help 
1 Lange, D. Our Native Birds. How to protect them and to attract them 
to our homes. With illustrations. New York, The Macmillan Company. 
162 pp. 
