NOTES AND LITKRATURK. 



ZOOLOGW 



Birds in their Relation to Man. — Mrs. Florence Merriam Bailey 

 in her Birds of Village and Field " included much matter relative to 

 the food of birds, based on the reports of the Dept. of Agricul- 

 ture ; nothing has since been done to put before the public a system- 

 atic compilation of the results of the work which this Department 

 has done. Prof. Weed attempted to give a senior class in the New 

 Hampshire Agricultural college a course in economic ornithology. 

 His book " Birds in their Relation to Man " ^ has developed from the 

 series of lectures which he wrote for this object. The work should 

 be an effective agent in informing the general public of the part birds 

 play in the garden, field and forest. Man in his relations to birds 

 comes in for treatment, and it is only thanks to a few honored names 

 such as Wilson, Forbes, Beal and Palmer, that the prevailing record 

 of short-sighted selfishness and ingratitude is lightened. 



The book begins with a chapter on methods of studying the food 

 of birds, the only really satisfactory ones being that of the Dept. of 

 Agriculture, the examination of stomachs ; and that of Prof. Herrick, 

 the study of nestlings from a tent ; the development of the study of 

 economic ornithology is then briefly treated. The next three chap- 

 ters treat in general the vegetable and animal food of birds ; then 

 follow chapters on the amount of food of birds ; birds as regulators of 

 outbreaks, and the relations of birds to predaceous and parasitic 

 insects. Nearly half the book is devoted to the food of the separate 

 families of birds as illustrated by typical examples. The bulletins of 

 the Dept. of Agriculture naturally form the basis of this part of the 

 work, with the result that while the passerine orders are well-covered, 

 the food of the water-birds, among which little systematic work has 

 yet been done, is very inadequately treated. Interesting chapters 

 follow on the ''conservation" of birds including an account of legisla- 

 tion lately enacted, and helpful suggestions for resisting the attacks 



