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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Spencer Fullerton Baird. By William H. Dall, D.Sc. Phila- 

 delphia and London : J. B. Lippincott Co. 1915. 15s.net. 

 In this handsome and copiously illustrated work, Dr. Dall 

 gives us a most interesting biography of the late Professor Baird, 

 formerly head of the Smithsonian Institution, a distinguished 

 naturalist of very wide zoological interests, with that practical 

 bent of mind and amiability of character which seem so often to 

 distinguish American zoologists. Perhaps the economic work 

 they have to do may have something to do with this ; Professor 

 Baird, in particular, distinguished himself in connection with 

 the attempts of the United States Fish Commission, of which he 

 was the first chief, to increase the supply of food fishes, which 

 have been, in many cases, crowned with success ; as in the cases 

 of the re-population of the Pacific Coast Salmon-grounds by 

 hatcheries, and successful transference of the Shad from the 

 Atlantic Coast to the Pacific, where it is now a market staple, 

 while "the inshore Cod-fishery of New England was measurably 

 restored." Yet, as we are told, "so great a zoological authority 

 as Huxley, appointed to a somewhat similar board of inquiry in 

 regard to the North Sea Fisheries of Great Britain, had no 

 hesitation in declaring that no actions of man could have the 

 power either to increase or perceptibly diminish the quantity of 

 fishes in the sea ; and that all such changes were due to causes 

 beyond human foresight or control." Although a great museum 

 official, however, and a teaching Professor of great note, Baird 

 was always a good deal of a field naturalist and keeper of live 

 animals, as the copious extracts from his correspondence with 

 Audubon, Dana, Agassiz, and others, which vary these pages, 

 abundantly prove ; and field naturalists, like fanciers, learn, or 

 should learn, to be very careful in talking about zoological 

 " impossibilities." A quaint bit of folklore about the Scottish 

 ancestors of the Professor's family deserves quoting: Thomas the 

 Pthymer had prophesied that there " would always be an eagle 

 in the crags of Pennan while there was a Baird in Auchmedden," 

 and the birds supported the bard loyally, disappearing when the 

 Earl of Aberdeen purchased the estate, to return when his eldest 

 son, Lord Haddon, married a Miss Baird, and depart again when 



