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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



The Home Life of Wild Birds : a Neiv Method of the Study and 

 Photography of Birds. By Francis Hobart Herrick. 

 G. P. Putnam's Sons, The Knickerbocker Press. 



This book is another evidence of the advance made in 

 ornithological bionomics by the aid of Photography. It also 

 inculcates a new method of " control," not by making a captive 

 of the bird or nest, but by the displacement of the latter from its 

 original position to one that affords a better field for observation. 

 "If the nest like that of an Oriole is fastened to the leafy branch 

 of a tree, the nesting bough is cut off, and the whole is then 

 carefully lowered to the ground and set up in a good light, so 

 that the branch with the nest shall occupy the same relative 

 positions which they did before. The nest, however, is now but 

 four instead of forty or more feet from the ground." Other nests 

 are treated on the same principle and brought within the vicinity 

 of a green tent, " which effectually conceals the student, together 

 with his camera and entire outfit." In fact, when the arrange- 

 ments are successfully completed, the author and his camera are 

 frequently not beyond an actual distance of about two feet from 

 the nest. This transaction has produced a number of charming 

 illustrations, and, what is more, these have portrayed many 

 novel attitudes in bird life. The young Belted Kingfishers 

 and their habit of walking backwards is a case in point, and for 

 the probable origin of that procedure we must refer to the book 

 itself. In the chapter on " The Force of Habit " are several 

 singular records. In watching hour by hour the American 

 Robins visiting their young, Mr. Herrick found that the male 

 invariably came to the right side of the nest, while the female 

 did not pursue that strange predilection. In " Taming Wild Birds 

 without a Cage " the author has described many traits known to 

 all of us who can, now and then, practise that difficult human feat 

 of "keeping quiet." The rest in the woods when tired out has 



