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THE A M ERIC AX NATURALIST. [Vol. XXXVII. 



" The Water Fowl Family". 1 — The fourth volume in the Ameri- 



knowledge of the life hal f'the game 1 1 It deals with the 



are general descriptions of the families in each group, and accounts of 

 each species, including their distribution, nesting and feeding habits. 

 These have been compiled from standard authorities. There are also 



known species as it concerns the sportsman, and descriptions of the 

 various methods employed in hunting it. An encouraging interest 

 in bird protection is shown throughout the book; the "game hog" 

 is condemned, and a close season in spring strongly advocated. It 

 is a pity that a little of the cheap sporting-story element was included. 

 The chapter on goose-shooting by the man who "hoped to preside 

 at the obsequies of a goose " might well have been omitted. There 

 are a number of excellent full page illustrations, three by Bull, and 

 the rest by Fuertes. 



R. H. 



Ancestral Canidae. 2 — Mr. J. B. Hatcher has published a paper of 

 unusual interest on the Oligocene Canidae lately discovered in 

 Nebraska, and now preserved in the Carnegie Museum. 8 A full 



described. It is held that Daphsenus has no known descendant ; 

 that Proamphicyon is ancestral to Amphicyon ; and that Protem- 



interest, as it seems to be undoubtedly ancestral to Canis ; that is, 

 to the common dog. The discovery of Protemnocyon carries the 



was a very dog-like creature. The sagittal crest is quite as in the 

 dogs ; the two temporal crests of the foxes give their skulls a 

 decidedly different appearance. The postorbital processes of the 



