Authors may or may not be indebted to reviewers of their works, but it is not often that reviewers are under obligations to the authors of the works they review. In the present instance, however, we feel that we must express our gratitude to the Messrs. Kearton for furnishing us with such an admirable demonstration of the kind of ornithology for which this journal stands. If, following the same lines, we can bring Bird-Lore to the high standard reached in 'With Nature and a Camera,' we shall have nearly approached our ideal.
Briefly, this book is a record of observation and photography by two ornithologists in Great Britain. Doubtless, no birds in the world have been more written about than the birds of this region, and still this book is filled with fresh and original matter, which is always interesting, and often of real scientific value.
Asked to explain how it was that in such a well-worked field the author of this volume had succeeded in securing so much new material, we should reply that we believed it was because he was an observer rather than a collector. Apparently realizing that to collect specimens of British birds would add but little to the store of our knowledge concerning them, he has devoted his time to a study of their habits, and in presenting the results of his labors, he has been most ably seconded by his brother, whose photographs of birds in nature have not, so far as we know, been excelled.
Perhaps the most forcible lesson taught by this book is the pleasure to be derived from photographing wild birds in nature, and the surprisingly good results which may be achieved by patient, intelligent effort. We do not recall a more adequately illustrated nature book, and its pictures not only claim our admiration because of their beauty, but also because they carry with them an assurance of fidelity to nature which no artist's pencil can inspire.
Bird Gods. By Charles de Kay. With decorations by George Wharton Edwards. A. S. Barnes & Co., New York. 12mo, pages xix + 249. Price, $2.
So singular a combination of ornithologist and mythologist is the author of 'Bird Gods' that students of birds, as well as of myths, will find his pages of interest. "Why," he asks himself, "should certain birds have been allotted to certain gods and goddesses in the Greek and Roman mythology? Why should the Eagle go with Zeus, the Peacock with Hera, the Dove with Venus, the Swan with Apollo, the Woodpecker with Ares, the Owl with Pallas Athené?" And his search for a reply to these questions has led him into many little-frequented by-paths of early European literature, in which he has found much curious information concerning the influence of birds on primitive religions. Impressed by the "share birds have had in the making of myth, religion, poetry and legend" he wonders at their wholesale destruction to-day, and ventures the hope that "recollection of what our ancestors thought of birds and beasts, of how at one time they prized and idealized them, may induce in us, their descendants, some shame at the extermination to which we are consigning these lovable but helpless creatures, for temporary gains or sheer brutal love of slaughter."
Birds of Washington and Vicinity. By Mrs. L. W. Maynard, with Introduction by Florence A. Merriam. Washington, D. C., 1898. 12 mo, pages 204. Cuts in the text, 18. Price, 85 cents.
In a prefatory note the author states that this book "has been prepared at the suggestion of the Audubon Society of the District of Columbia, in the belief that a local work giving untechnical descriptions of all birds likely to be seen in this vicinity, with something of the haunts and habits of those that nest here, will be useful to many who desire an acquaintance with our own birds, but do not know just how to go about making it."
The book seems admirably adapted to achieve this end. The opening pages by Miss Merriam are a capital introduction to the study of birds in the District of Columbia. They are followed by 'A Field Key to Our Common Land Birds,' and attractively written biographical sketches of the breeding species. The migrants and winter residents are treated more briefly, and an annotated 'List of All Birds Found in the District of Columbia,' by Dr. C. W. Richmond, is given. There are also nominal lists of winter birds, birds that nest within the city limits, etc., and an 'Observation Outline,' abridged from Miss Merriam's 'Birds of Village and Field.'
The book is, in fact, a complete manual of ornithology for the District of Columbia, and will undoubtedly prove an efficient guide to the study of the birds of that region.