258 The American Naturalist. [March, 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
The Glacial Nightmare and The Flood.'—-In these two volumes 
Sir Henry Howorth undertakes to show how the Glacial Theory, as 
usually taught, is not sound, that it is based upon hypotheses, some of 
which cannot be verified, while others can be shown to be false. In 
facing the solution of the Drift problem be postulates a catastrophe, 
viz., a widespread flood, to explain the geological phenomena of the 
Plistocene period, and to account for the extinction of the fauna of 
that time. The work is limited to a consideration of the so-called drift 
beds and frequent reference to the literature of the subject is made. 
The opening chapters are compilations of the arguments advanced and 
conclusions reached by all authorities of the present century upon the 
subject, and many who date from the middle of the last. The second 
volume discusses the inadequacy of ice to meet the calls made upon its 
working power by the glacialists, with a concluding chapter in which 
the author claims that the only explanation of the distribution of the 
drift is a great diluvial catastrophe, and he points out in detail how 
the many facts of the drift are in accord with this theory. Examples 
are cited of the distribution by rapidly moving water of erratics, and 
also of the production of striæ by the latter. In some cases these strix 
are seen on the blocks transported by the water, and again upon the 
surfaces over which the detritus has been impelled 
An important omission in the chain of evidence presented by Mr. 
Howorth, in favor of his theory, is the cause of the flood. Save for a 
brief reference in his preface to “the rapid and perhaps sudden up- 
heaval of some of the largest mountain chains in the world, accom- 
panied probably by great subsidences of land elsewhere,” there is no 
reference to this point, upon which the whole theory seems to rest. 
Life Histories of North American Birds.’—This work is one 
of a series in quarto form intended to illustrate the collections in the 
U. S. National Museum. The present volume relates only to land 
birds, and while the main object is to make it a systematic and com- 
! The Glacial Nightmare and The Flood. 2vols. By Sir Henry H. Howorth. 
London, 1893. Sampson Low, Marston and Co. Publishers 
? Life Histories of Birds, with special reference to their Breeding Habits and 
Eggs. By Charles Bendire, Captain, U.S. A. Special Bulletin No.1, U. 8. 
Natl. Mus. Washington, 1892. 
