As to the merits of the illustrations with which it is embellished, there may be differences of opinion.--F. E. L. Beal.
On the Birds' Highway. By Reginald Heber Howe, Jr. With Photographic Illustrations by the Author, and a Frontispiece in color from a Painting by Louis Agassiz Fuertes.
This is a contribution to the class of literature which John Burroughs and Bradford Torrey have made so deservedly popular. It cannot, however, be said that the author has reached the standard of his prototypes. His observations were made in the Atlantic states from Virginia to Maine, and his descriptions bear evidence of sympathy with his subject. The illustrations include an admirable frontispiece of Chickadees by Louis Fuertes, thirteen full-page half-tones, for the most part illustrating the localities described, and numerous half-tone 'thumb-nail pictures' in the text, largely taken from mounted birds. Some of the latter are effective; others are too small or too indistinct to be of value to those who would need them.
An appendix gives nominal lists of the birds observed at Bristol, R. I.; Washington, D. C.; Chevy Chase, Md.; Hubbardstown, Mass., and Chateaugay Lake, N. Y.--F. M. C.
The Danger of Introducing Noxious Animals and Birds. By T. S. Palmer. Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture for 1898, pp., 87-110; 1 half-tone plate and 6 cuts in the text.
Birds as Weed Destroyers. By Sylvester D. Judd. Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture for 1898, pp., 221-232; 1 half-tone plate and 7 cuts in the text.
Economic Relations of Birds and Their Food. By F. E. L. Beal. Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Twenty-fourth Annual Meeting of the New Jersey State Horticultural Society, January 4 and 5, 1899.
As long as man's attitude toward nature is the standpoint of dollars and cents, bird-lovers will welcome every fact which places them in possession of a fresh argument to be used where appeals to sentiment are of no avail. It is, therefore, with great satisfaction that we receive these sound, convincing papers on economic zoölogy.
Dr. Palmer's paper has long been needed and, fortunately or unfortunately, so unanswerable are the facts which he presents, that one would imagine universal knowledge of them would be all that was necessary to avert further danger from the introduction of exotic species. The subject, however, should receive the prompt attention of legislators, in order that it may be duly placed under the control of the proper authorities--obviously the officials of the Biologic Survey of the United States Department of Agriculture.