854 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [ VoL. XXXV. 
In addition to the store of geographic knowledge this memoir is 
a positive contribution to ethnologic science of the highest value. 
It establishes a new linguistic stock (Serian), it affords illustra- 
tions of priscan phases of culture of extreme rarity, and the author 
advances many suggestions of theoretic interest. 
FRANK RUSSELL. 
ZOOLOGY. 
Schmeil’s Zoélogy.!— This work was originally prepared for stu- 
dents in German Gymnasia and “Realschulen,” and has as its 
primary object a disciplinary use of the facts of zoology. It tells 
certain facts, it leads the student to infer other facts and reasons by 
numerous and carefully worded questions. It differs from the old- 
time zoólogies, which merely gave a description of selected animals, 
by some very important features. It takes representative forms and 
describes them from an cecological standpoint; showing how they 
are adapted to their environment, and how they are fitted to a 
certain kind of life. Then follow shorter descriptions of allied 
forms. There is a minimum of structural details throughout, but 
the biological side, so interesting to young students, is everywhere 
emphasized. We would advise that all secondary schools teaching 
zoology have a copy of this work in the reference library ; its price 
and its unnecessarily large size forbid its use with us as a class-room 
text. : E 
Herrick's Home Life of Wild Birds. — The subtitle of Professor 
Herrick's book? if it is understood that only the home life of birds 
is to be studied and photographed by the new method, will serve as 
a guide to the nature of this very valuable addition to the list of 
books dealing with bird life. Professor Herrick has, by the help of 
the strong parental instinct in birds, overcome the difficulties with 
which the photography of birds in the wild state has hitherto been 
attended. Instead of trusting to mechanical devices for arranging 
ASchmeil, Otto. Zext-Book of Zoilogy, treated from a biological standpoint, 
translated from the German by Rudolf Rosenstock, M.A., edited by J. F. 
Cunningham, M.A. London, Adam and Charles Black, 1901. xvi + 493 PP- 
2 Herrick, Francis Hobart. The Home Life of Wild Birds. A New Method 
of the Study and Photography of Birds. With 141 original illustrations from 
are by the author. New York and. London, G. P. Putnam's Sons, kii 
149 pp. 
