THE LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
OF NEW ENGLAND. 
With Descriptions of the Birds, their Nests and Eggs, their 
Habits and Notes. With Illustrations. By H. D. Minot. 
Second Edition. Edited by William Brewster. 8vo, 
gilt top, $8.50. 
The “ Land-Birds and Game-Birds of New England ” is a re¬ 
markable, interesting, and authoritative book. Written by a youth 
of seventeen, with almost no outside help of either a literary or sci¬ 
entific kind, it found favor at once. It owed this popularity partly 
to the fact that it is addressed especially to bird-lovers, partly to the 
large amount of original matter which it contains, partly to the 
pleasant style in which it is written, and in no small degree to the 
attractive personality of Mr. Minot himself. The author had a clear 
head, a true heart, and a well defined purpose, together with rare 
literary taste. He was deeply in earnest, and full of warm yet rev¬ 
erent love of nature. 
For nearly twenty years the work has ranked among the authori¬ 
ties on the subject of which it treats. The original edition was long 
exhausted, and for several years copies have been scarcely obtain¬ 
able. The death of the author having prevented the execution of his 
planned revision of his work, the new edition has been prepared 
under the able care of Mr. William Brewster, whose name guaran¬ 
tees the accuracy of the volume from the ornithological standpoint. 
He has left the original text essentially unaltered, almost the only 
change being the substitution of the scientific names of the species 
as now used by the Ornithologists’ Union. In signed foot-notes Mr. 
Brewster has given a very full review of the distribution and occur¬ 
rence of all the species, and in an Appendix an account of the spe¬ 
cies added to the known Bird-fauna of New England since the book 
first appeared. 
There is prefixed a portrait of the author, drawn by Mr. A. F. 
Jaccaci, and a short Biographical Notice written by the author’s 
father, the late William Minot of Boston. 
The following pages from the work indicate its character and 
style, also the nature of the foot-notes added by Mr. Brewster. 
