Portrait? and Habits of Our Bird?. Pre- 
pared by Various Authors. Edited by 
T. Gilbert Pearson. Illustrated with 
One Hundred Colored Plates by Louis 
Agassiz Fuertes. R. Bruce Horsfall. Ed- 
mund J. Sawyer. Allan Brooks and R. I. 
Brasher: also Sixty-nine Photographs 
and Drawings from Nature. In Two 
\ olumes. Xew York City : National As- 
sociation of Audubon Societies. 
Here is the embodiment of a good idea. 
For many years we have been using the edu- 
cational leaflets of the National Association 
of Audubon Societies because they contain 
so much valuable text and so many accurate 
illustrations, although they have the disad- 
vantage of inconvenient reference. These 
leaflets have now been skillfully edited by 
Mr. Pearson and arranged in two convenient 
and well bound volumes. The text is easy 
reading. The subheads are catchy and sug- 
gestive. There is an even balance between 
half-tones from photographs and illustra- 
tions from beautiful drawings. The various 
chapters represent a wide range of author- 
ship by our best ornithologists. Considering 
it in all its aspects it is one of the most in- 
spiring books about birds that have come to 
our desk. After only a short reading the 
reader wants to hasten out to the fields to 
see and study the living bird'. 
We welcome this delightful work of the 
Audubon Societies and hope it will be eager- 
ly sought by Members of The Agassiz Asso- 
ciation and by our personal friends. We 
recommend it heartily and assure the reader 
that money invested in the purchase of these 
books will pay a satisfactory dividend al- 
though the purchaser may already have a 
set of the leaflets. 
The Strange Adventure? of a Pebble. By 
Hallam Hawkswort’n. New York City: 
Charles Scribner’s Sons. 
The poorest part of this book is on the 
front cover. The title is misleading. The 
author has written a popular, elementary 
geology using a pebble as the text, but with 
about the same degree of fitness with which 
one might detail the history of agriculture 
under the title. A Kernel of Corn. The 
author's attempt to popularize, evidently for 
youthful readers, the story of the physical 
constitution of the earth by referr’ng to the 
earth as a large pebble is juvenilizing for 
the reason that to a child a pebble means a 
pebble. A pebble does not connote the 
earth nor the nebular hypothes : s nor the 
story of evolution. Aside from the mis- 
nomer and aside from the general a r of 
overpatronizing the dear little child, the 
book is a fairly good one. The author "‘talks 
down’’ to the child. Some children may like 
to be patted on the head by a literary or a 
scientific man and called ‘My dear Johnny’ 
or My dear Susie.’ Mr. Hawksworth’s fault 
is not so great as the more common one of 
personifying inanimate objects. We are 
pleased to note that he does not make the 
old earth hop around on Brownie legs nor 
load great boulders in a gocart. He has, 
however, approached that method by ex- 
pressing serious facts in terms of play but 
even that is not bad when he calls his lit- 
erary notes. ‘ Hide and Seek in the Library.” 
There is throughout the book a delightful 
simplicity and pleasing directness of style. 
The language is in the main better than the 
thought, evidently the result of the author's 
earnest and commendable desire to simplify 
the subject for little folks. He has done 
more than that. He has prepared an inter- 
esting book for older persons. Scientific 
subjects may be stated simply but not in the 
style of ‘‘Dear little Oootsie. Tootsie.” We 
hope the author will write another book in 
a similar simplicity and directness of style, 
but without his present painfully patronizing 
manner. At present, when he is making 
some of his best and most interesting state- 
ments he assumes an attitude of talking 
from the colossal heights of "knowing-k- 
ail” down to those who do not know much 
of anything. The author is well informed 
in his subject. It may be that what we 
have said, including what seems to be un- 
favorable criticism, is really laudatory of the 
book. Perhaps the reader who has no special 
training in the study of nature will be de- 
lighted with the subject matter and by the 
author’s friendly although patronizing con- 
descension. Some persons may like to think 
of our old earth as a b g pebble. In that 
case what wou’d they call us little chaps 
that live on the surface of the pebble? 
Waste Places. 
So lavish Mother Nature. 
So prodigal her store. 
That even bare, waste places 
Must e’er be sicklied o’er 
With the mantle of her beauty. 
With a web of color bright. 
That flashes in the sunshine 
As facets catch the light. 
— Emma Peirce. 
