any lover of nature having- the half tones 
he gives would not part with them for ten 
times the cost of the book. 
Catching good negatives of live birds in 
the open is not easy. One needs to know 
photography and bird habits extremely 
well, and then be satisfied with a thousand 
failures along with a few successes. This 
knowledge and patience have been remark- 
ably displayed by the author in the profu- 
sion of full-page reproductions of his valu- 
able work. 
The meadow lark's nest containing 
young birds is a most artistic plate. The 
tree toads clinging to their tree and the 
mother spider caught in the act of carrying 
her young in a silken ball are deserving of 
special commendation. His pair of cedar 
birds look particularly happy as they bal- 
ance upon their twigs and eye the camera as 
if they knew all about it. 
Horned toads and whales, dragon flies 
and opossums, as well as many other forms 
of life, both common and rare, have their 
turn at entertaining the reader, and their 
inmost thoughts seem to have been read by 
this enthusiastic and peculiarly successful 
scientist. 
It is a good book for children of all ages, 
but wherever it is introduced into any fam- 
ily the younger children will uniformly 
have to wait till their elders have enjoyed 
it, for no age can be proof against its 
charms. 
Birds of North America. Illustrated 
Descriptive Manual to Beard's Natural 
History Charts. Potter & Putnam 
Company, 63 Fifth Ave., New York. 
This convenient little pamphlet contains 
brief descriptions of some of the most com- 
mon birds, the eagle, the owl, the parrot, the 
crow, the turkey, the quail, the ostrich, the 
heron, the swan, and the penguin. It is 
closely printed with numerous illustrations 
of the structure and forms of the typical 
birds of each sort, and gives in language 
that can well be understood by children, the 
principal facts of interest. 
It is sold at 20 cents, and will be found 
valuable to a large class of teachers who are 
in search of material to interest their pupils 
in the common birds of our country. 
Nests and Eggs of North American 
Birds, by Oliver Davie, author of 
"Methods in the Art of Taxidermy," 
etc. The Landon Press, Columbus, 
Ohio. 
This is the fifth edition of an excellent 
work that has already won wide recognition 
as an exposition of how the birds build and 
lay. It has been revised and enlarged con- 
siderably, and now contains a profusion of 
cuts that will be highly appreciated. Rec- 
ognizing the difficulty the mind has in grasp- 
ing the entire meaning of a written descrip- 
tion, the author has added to his text a large 
number of well-executed drawings of the 
birds most difficult to describe and has given 
their nests and eggs the attention their im- 
portance to the naturalist demands. 
The book consists of over five hundred 
pages octavo, closely printed, and arranged 
so as to constitute a convenient and exhaus- 
tive encyclopedia of the birds of this country 
and their nests and eggs. Although the 
title of the book would lead one to think the 
matter does not pertain to the habits of the 
birds, nor their appearance, it is more com- 
plete in this respect than many books writ- 
ten ostensibly to describe the birds them- 
selves, and in many of its articles almost com- 
plete life- histories are to be found. The nest- 
ing habits and the hatching of the eggs have 
led the author on till the work has become a 
very readable one for those who are by no 
means specialists on eggs and nests. The 
writer has modestly disclaimed attempting 
to cover so much ground and refers his read- 
ers to the works of Coues and Ridgway for 
further particulars. 
The numbers of those who do not let a 
summer pass without looking into the lives 
of the birds which visit their country resi- 
dences are rapidly growing, and this growth 
of interest on the part of thousands who do 
not wish to become experts but desire to en- 
joy their feathered neighbors and their 
products most fully, has made room for a 
large sale of this work. It has but to be- 
come known to be possessed by all cultured 
households where trips to the country are 
annually made. 
To know the birds of one's locality by 
name and to be able to identify their nests 
and watch their doings with some degree of 
intelligence is an accomplishment which 
many desire and are annually attaining. 
With this work in one's possession few birds 
can remain in the vicinity without being 
identified. The gladness and loss of selfish 
thoughts and motives that are the reward of 
all those who lose their hearts to the birds 
and their growing families do far more 
good in the world than any amount of drugs 
and dieting. 
Few people go to the country without hav- 
ing something they wish to gain in the way 
of health. A prescription of bird life taken 
regularly before meals has been found one 
of the greatest cure-alls the world has pro- 
duced. There is no work in existence better 
calculated to promote this sort of convales- 
cence than this one on the nests and eggs 
that we so often run past in our ignorance of 
the joy a bush or stump or tree has in store 
for those who have a mind to find it. 
141 
