the same author, in Rambles in Alpine Valleys. Members of thirty 

 three families are described in an easy, gossipy fashion, with special 

 reference to their food and nesting-habits. No opportunity is lost for 

 pointing out that in general, birds are the farmers best agents for 

 protecting crops from insects and worms. The fruit eating proclivities 

 of the Thrush and the Black bird in the late summer are excused for 

 the wholesale destruction in early spring of insects, worms, slugs and 

 snails. 



The book is intended to interest young people in the study of Orni- 

 thology, but from the facts set forth, it may also be of use in creating 

 among farmers a better appreciation of the service rendered them by 

 birds, and lead them to see the necessity of organized protection for 

 the feathered race. 



Check List of North American Birds. 8 — The American Orni- 

 thologist's Union have issued a second edition of the Check-list pub- 

 lished in 1885. The new addition includes the numerous additions and 

 nomenclature changes made in the several supplements to the Check 

 List since the publication of the original edition, together with a 

 revision of the "habitats" of the species and subspecies, but omitting 

 the Code of Nomenclature. 



Species whose status as North American birds is doubtful are listed 

 separately under the heading « Hypothetical," and the fossil birds are 

 likewise separately classified. 



As an authoritative nomenclator this book has much value, but it could 

 be rendered more authoritative if the A. O. U. would insist on cor- 

 rect orthography in all cases where this is ascertainable. In several 

 instances the list adheres to obvious misspelling and typographical 

 errors; such as hasitata for besitata; cincinatus for cincinnatus ; 

 Leptatilafor Leptoptila ; Ammodramus for Ammodromus, etc.; Greek 

 spellings instead of Latin are retained wherever the original authors 

 used them, and some bad examples of the vox hybrida are perpetuated. 



EECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 



Annual Report of the State Geologist of New Jersey for the year 1893. From 



vi S J£fi«2; H 'r StUd ! e8 In thG Neocene of California. Extr. Journ. Geol., 

 Vol. Ill, 189o. From the author. 



8 _ The A. O. U. List of North American Birds. Second Edition. New York, 



