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Mar., 1916 PUBLICATIONS the College of Hawaii, etc. Honolulu, Ha- waii. The Hawaiian Gazette Co., Ltd. 1915. 596 pp., 117 plates. ($5.50 net.) A "natural history" of Hawaii has long been a desideratum. Every year the qum- hers increase of those who seek our Pacific play-ground for health and recreation. Prof. Bryan has prepared an extensive hand- book, interestingly written and admirably illustrated, covering a really wide range of subjects. The preface states that it has been the aim of the author to bring together into one volume the more important and interesting facts about the Hawaiian Islands and their primitive inhabitants, as well as information concerning the native and in- troduced plants and animals of the group. "To supply a guide that would provide reli- able and readable information, in a form that would be welcomed by the general reading public, and, at the same time, that would meet the requirements of the homes, the schools, and the libraries of Hawaii and the mainland, as a convenient reference book, has been' the author's endeavor." "The casual reader will find the body of the text shorn of the technical verbiage and scientific names that so often distract, an- noy and fatigue the layman. Where sucb terms have been indispensable they have been defined in the text, the footnotes, or in the index and glossary. Those who pre- fer their reading should rest on the firmer ground that definite nomenclature is sup- posed to impart, will find the necessary technical names of orders, families, genera and species, referred to in the text given in the footnotes, or in the cross-references in the index." The book comprises an account of the na- tive Hawaiian people; the geology, geogra- phy, and topography of the islands; the flora of the group; agriculture and horticul- ture; and a treatise on the animal life, oc- cupying some seventeen chapters out of a total of thirty-seven. Chapters 22 to 25 are devoted to ornithology, the subject having been treated under the followin subheads: Introduced Birds; Birds of the Sea; Birds of the Marsh, Stream and Shore; Birds of the Mountain Forests. Unquestionably the most interesting birds of the main islands are those belonging to the Drepanididae which includes the major- ity of song birds of Hawaii, and "is perhaps the most remarkable example of the evolu- tion of a group of birds to be found any- where. While they are much alike in their general structure, they differ amazingly in the form of the bill and also exhibit strik- ing differences in the color of the plumage. In almost all other families the form of the bill is quite uniform among the species that belong to it. But among the Drepani- didae of Hawaii we find them fitted by their structure to almost every kind of life. for which a song bird in the tropics can become adapted. This adaptation of the bill has led to some most remarkable changes. From the firm, straight bill of the genus Oreo- mystis--the genus supposed to most closely conform with the ancestral form which may have come from America in very remote time, and the form from which all the other genera o? the family are su, pposed to have evolved--we have widely different types of bills developed." One line of modification ends in a long, slender, and singularly curved bill with a tubular tongue, especially adapted to securing the nectar from long tubular flowers. Another terminates in Chlorigo?s kona--a grosbeak-like bird that feeds on the flint-hard seeds of the bastard sandalwood. Unfortunately these queer, musky, ano- malies are paying the penalty of extreme specialization. Confined, as many of them are, to very special foods, they are unable to meet the radically changed conditions in- cident to deforestation. Of a total of fifty- six living and extinct passefine birds which have been known to exist in the forests of tbe inhabited islands of the group, sixteen are now regarded as definitely extinct, while in the last decade other species have .become very rare in districts where they were regarded as fairly common. Probably it is only a question of a short time before all but the least specialized will disappear. One hundred and seventeen half-tone plates illustrate the work. The figures of the birds are mostly from the plates of Wil- son and Evans's ,ives Hawaiienses. Almost all the other plates of the book are from photographs direct from nature, or from prepared specimens. A very full, often an- notated, index completes the work and ren- ders easily accessible its extensive store of information. The text and illustrations, it may be added, are clearly and well printed, on good dull-finished paper. The author is to be congratulated for pro- ducing a work which will give pleasure to many, undoubtedly stimulate interest, and long remain a standard reference work on the natural history of Hawaii.--W. K. FISHER, BIRDS IN THEIR ECONOMIC RELATION TO MAN, by P?ICHARD C. MCGREGOR (Ornitholo- gist, Bureau of Science, Manila, P.I.). [Philippine Bureau of Science, press bulle-