ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 
49 
insertion of some wood-cut illustrations from Baird, Brewer, and Bidgway’s 
large work, which, with the exception of the frontispiece, by Miss Brydges, 
almost uniformly mar, rather than beautify the volume. The very first 
cut is of an inconsolable Olive-sided Flycatcher, which is written down 
“ Hermit Thrush ” ! But this is the fault of the publishers, who also 
betray their ignorance in the bad spelling of the preface, and not of the 
author, who did not see the proof-sheets. It is to be hoped that Mr. 
Burroughs will collect his later essays on birds into a second volume, 
which would nieet with a very hearty welcome. — E. I. 
Minot’s “ Birds of New England.” ^ — It would not be generous, or 
even just, to criticise this work as a scientific treatise or as a mature pro- 
duction. We prefer to side with the youthful author, who is evidently a 
lover of birds, keenly alive to the delights they are capable of affording, 
and enthusiastic in the pursuit of his favorite study, who has in an in- 
credibly brief period trained himself to become a really good observer, 
and who shows that he possesses qualities which go to make a first-rate 
ornithologist. In this volume he not only imparts to others the knowl- 
edge of birds he has acquired, but also endeavors to awaken the same 
pleasurable emotions he has experienced in the acquisition : the former 
design is carried out with fidelity, precision, and detail, while the fresh- 
ness, nawete, and no little good taste which the literary execution of the 
work displays will go far toward meeting the latter indication ; for the 
color of personality — if it be the genuine thing, as it is in this case un- 
questionably — always lends a charm to natural-history narrative. The 
work, moreover, shows traces of kindly interested supervision during its 
preparation, and the contributions to its pages are not the least valuable of 
its contents. There is very little technicality, chiefly taken from Baird 
and another writer ; the descriptions, however, are tersely original. The 
instructions for collecting eggs differ from those ordinarily given mainly 
on the score of humanity, showing what may be accomplished without 
destroying the parents ; but we waver here, saying frankly that as be- 
tween a bird’s life and the identification of an egg we are merciless. Next 
after the biographies of the birds, which are conveniently divided into 
sections relating respectively to the nest and eggs, the general habits, and 
the song or other notes, and which embody no little information not 
already the property of ornithologists, — on the night-habits of some spe- 
cies, for instance, — the most prominent and most original features of the 
work are the artificial “keys,” in one of which the birds themselves 
are analyzed somewhat after a method lately introduced, the eggs of 
* The Land-Birds and Game-Birds of New England, with Descriptions of the 
Birds, their Nests and Eggs, their Habits and Notes. By H. D. Minot. Salem, 
Mass. : Naturalist’s Agency. Boston : Estes andLauriat. “ 1877” [i. e. Dec., 
1876]. 1 vol. 8vo. pp. xvi, 456, figg. xylog. 29 (on 1 pi.) -f 22 (in text). 
