Book News and Reviews
Bird Homes. The Nests, Eggs and
Breeding Habits of the Land Birds
Breeding in the Eastern United
States , With Hints on the Rear-
ing AND Photographing of Young
Birds. By A. Radclyffe Dugmore
Illustrated with photographs from na
ture by the author. Doubleday &
McClure Co. 8vo Pages xvi- 183
50 half-tone ills., and 16 colorotypes
$2 net.
This attractive volume is to be com.
pared only with Davie's ' Nests and Eggs
of North American Birds', from which it
differs in arrangement, the descriptions
being grouped according to nesting-site,
and not systematically as in Davie, while
Mr. Dugmore gives a short description of
the plumages of the species treated, but
generally fails to mention the authority for
statements not based on his own experi-
ence, and. in this respect, the book is less
useful to the working ornithologist than
Davie's. In its illustrations, however, it
is immeasurably superior to Davie's book ;
in fact, we can conceive of no better
demonstration of the superiority of the
camera over the pen or brush in depicting
birds' nests than that furnished by a
comparison of Mr. Dugmore 's beautiful
plates with those contained in Davie's
' Nests and Eggs.'
Mr. Dugmore will be known to orni-
thologists chiefly by his illustrations in
Scott's ' Bird Studies' In the present
work, however, he shows a far clearer
perception of the true value of the camera
to the ornithologist, and his photographs
as here reproduced in black and white
are so eminently satisfactory that we
cannot but regret the attempt to produce
any of them in color.
Mr. Dugmore has devoted much time
to rearing young birds, and his notes
on the habits of a number of our common
birds in confinement contain no little
amount of original and valuable informa-
tion. His position in regard to egg-collect-
ing is in accord with that of all true
ornithologists, and we are assured that
his work will exert a widespread influence
in creating and fostering an interest in
bird-study and a proper regard for the
rights of birds. — F. M. C.
Nature's Calendar. By Ernest Inger-
SOLL. With 12 illustrations from
original photographs by Clarence
LowN. New York and London, Harper
& Brothers i2mo. Pages xii -^ 270.
12 full-page half-tones.
'What to see in nature and when to see
it,' is the motto of this book, and its
author's skill with the pen and knowledge
of the literature of natural history have
served a good purpose in presenting in
attractive and useful form a large amount
of information concerning the seasons
and their plant and animal life.
The matter is arranged under months,
a general description of the characteristic
phenomena of each month being followed
by calendars wherein are summarized the
statements in relation to Mammals, Birds,
Fishes, Batrachians and Reptiles, and
Insects. "The dates here given," it is
said, "refer to an ordinary season about
New York City," and wide margins are
left (the text occupying less than half of
each page) for the entry of the reader's
observations.
Miss Helen Ingersoll, the author's
daughter, is accredited with assistance "in
respect to local botany." Prof. Clarence
M. Weed is responsible for the parts relat-
ing to insects, and for information in
regard to mammals, reptiles, batrachians
and fishes the author quotes from Merriam,
Burroughs, W. E. Cram, De Kay, C. C.
Abbott, John Bell (who is spoken of as
"Thomas Bell"), Mearns, Kirtland, Allen,
Hay, Goode, and others : but for the
part relating to birds he gives no author-
ity. This is the more to be regretted, for
it is this portion of the book in which we
are here especially interested and in
which we find a number of records at
variance with previously published data.
