BOOK NOTICES. 



A GOOD BOOK ON GAME BIRDS. 



Any man with sporting blood in his veins 

 will be delighted with "Our Feathered 

 Game," which describes, pictures and gos- 

 sips agreeably about 135 species of birds, 

 yet is small enough to be carried comfort- 

 ably in any hunter's gripsack. Mr. Hunt- 

 ington's delightful book represents a nail 

 hit squarely on the head, both by author 

 and publisher. The subject has been well 

 covered and well illustrated, with a good 

 figure of every species mentioned, in a 

 single volume of handy size. 



The figures are small, usually 6 on a 

 page; but they are clear cut, beautifully 

 printed and thoroughly useful in the iden- 

 tification of species. The colored plates are 

 mostly too yellow or too brown ; and that 

 opposite page 258 looks too much like some 

 of the awful colored plates in some of the 

 great magazines. The one facing page 85, 

 "Shooting Sage Qrouse," is all right. Mr. 

 Huntington is particularly successful with 

 pictures of the sage brush plains. 



This book is not a dull and deadly cata- 

 logue of species. Much of it is good read- 

 ing, and the many incidents of the hunting 

 field are grateful and comforting. The 

 technical names and descriptions are wisely 

 relegated to the back of the book, so that 

 the real reader has plain sailing through 

 346 pages. 



Of the few little things which might be 

 criticized, the most serious is the author's 

 official acceptance of doves, 7 species in all, 

 as game birds. It matters not that in Cal- 

 ifornia, the South, and in a few other lo- 

 calities, doves are killed by men who other- 

 wise are sportsmen. We have "in our 

 midst," unfortunately, thousands of Italians 

 who kill robins, orioles, thrushes and other 

 song birds generally, as game, for the pot ! 

 But all the killing that ever has been or 

 ever will be done can not make doves or 

 song birds into real game birds. Doves are 

 too tame to be game ; and first, last and all 

 the time, true sportsmen protest against 

 doves being classed with the birds that may 

 be shot and eaten. Let us draw the line 

 above them. W. T. H. 



Our Feathered Game: A Handbook of 

 the North American Game Birds. By 

 Dwight W. Huntington. Cloth, 8vo, 47 

 full-page plates, 8 in color, pp. 396. New 

 York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 



lover of nature, and as an enthusiastic am- 

 ateur photographer. With loving observa- 

 tion she tells of the red bird's wooing in 

 rapturous and tender love song; of his de- 

 votion to his shy little bride, to whom he 

 sings, "So dear, so dear;" of his mad de- 

 light in the advent of his small family, 

 which he announces to the world with a 

 wild, triumphant "See here! See here!" 

 and of his valiant daily life. Mrs. Porter's 

 wish is that her book shall inculcate a love 

 of birds. If in a few instances she has 

 sacrificed accurate natural history to the 

 popular conception of bird life, she has not 

 done more than some of her predecessors 

 have been charged with. 



The illustrations are reproductions of 

 photographs taken by Mrs. Porter of the 

 wild, free birds in their own homes. It is 

 safe to say that each photograph represents 

 days if not weeks of toil and lying in wait 

 among the haunts of the birds ; work which 

 might well daunt many a man. The pho- 

 tographs are accurate portraits of the birds, 

 for Mrs. Porter has not permitted a feath- 

 er to be touched, either on the negatives or 

 in the prints. 



"The Song of the Cardinal" is hand- 

 somely made, is published by The Bobbs- 

 Merrill Co., Indianapolis, and the price is 

 $1.50. 



A BIRD LOVE STORY. 



"The Song of the Cardinal," by Gene S. 

 Porter, is a bird story written from the 

 heart. Mrs. Porter is well known to read- 

 ers of Recreation as a contributor, as a 



«3i 



"The Training of Wild Animals" is a 

 most fascinating book, by Frank C. Bos- 

 tock, the well-known trainer, who has spent 

 his life with wild beasts. He tells how and 

 why he undertook the work; the history of 

 wild animal training; how wild animals are 

 captured; what are the essentials for the 

 care of animals; what traits a man must 

 have in order to become a successful train- 

 er; the characteristics of different animals; 

 and how some animals go bad and can 

 never again be exhibited or trusted. He 

 describes in detail the principles and proc- 

 esses of training, and many accidents which 

 have occurred to trainers, explaining the 

 causes of trouble in each case ; and he most 

 generously gives great credit to other fa- 

 mous trainers, some of whose experiences 

 he relates, in graphic and interesting style. 



The book contains 32 attractive half-tone 

 illustrations, is edited by Miss Ellen Vel- 

 vin, F.Z.S., herself a well-known writer of 

 animal stories, and is published by The 

 Century Company, New York. Price, $1. 



"Homophonic Conversations," in English, 

 German, French and Italian, is a small book 

 intended as a natural aid to the memory 

 in learning those languages. It is arranged 



