iiooft j^etos anti 3^et)ieos

The Sequence of Plumages and Moults OF the Passerine Birds of New York. By Jonathan Dvvight, Jr. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Vol. XIII, Part I. pp. 73-345; pll. vii. Oct. 19, 1900. Although birds are doubtless better known than the members of any other order of animals, the laws governing the loss and renewal of feathers, the bird's unique char- acter, are in this paper adequately treated for the first time. That we have so long existed in comparative ignorance of the manner of molting of many of our com- monest birds is due primarily to the lack of proper material with which to study their plumage changes. Collectors desired only perfectly feathered specimens and made no efforts to secure birds during the period of molt. Nor did they attempt to ascertain, by an examination of the cra- nium, the age of the specimen preserved. Appreciating the need of proper material to enable us to clearly understand this exceedingly important function in a bird's economy, Dr. Dwight began some twenty years ago to form a collection of New York birds on which to base the studies whicii are in part presented in the present paper * of over 250 pages. The work is far too extended tor us to review it in (iit:iil; lurtlRrniore, we iiopc later that Dr. Dwiglit will liiiiisilf favor Bird-Lore's readers with an exteiuiid iV- sumt' of his studies. We append, tlierefore, only a list of the eight leading heads under which the subject has iieen treated: i. ' In- door Study of Moult. ' 2. ' Process of Moult.' 3. ' Early Plumages and Moults of 'oung Birds." 4. ' Se(|uence of Plumages aiul Moults." 5. ' Color Facts, T.f. ('(licit- Tlico- ries.' 6. 'Outdoor Study of Moult. " 7. ' I'lu-

• For adililional paprrs h Dr. Dwiclit iiii thr mult of

birds, sec the following: The ' Moult of thr North American Tclraonidir (Quails, F'artridnes, Grouse);' "The Ault,' li;oo, pp. J4~5I. >4I~'>; 'The Moult of the North American Shore Birds I I.imicola-K /Af</., pp. 168-585; 'The Sequence of Moults and I'lumanes of the Larid.T (Gulls and Terns*," iiiil.. i'ii>t. pp. at^H- mages and Moults of New York Species.' 8. ' Bibliography.' To this brief table of contents we mav add our estimate that Dr. Dvvight 's work is the most important contribution to Ameri- can ornithology since the publication of Dr. Coues' ' Key ' in 1884. It should be in the possession of every earnest student of birds.— F. M. C. Animal Life. A first book in Zoology. By David Starr Jordan and Vernon L. Kellogg. New York. D. Appleton &c Co. i2mo, page ix+329. Numerous illustrations. This is a text-book which adequately pre- sents the most advanced and approved ideas in the teaching of zoology to the general student. The matter of classification which, until recently, has been the leading if not the only theme of class-room manuals, is here accorded only four pages at the end of the volume, and the study of animal life is approached subjectively under such sugges- tive headings as 'The Life Cycle,' ' Func- tion and Structure,' 'Adaptations,' 'Para- sitism and Degeneration,' 'Protective Re- semblances and Mimicry,' "Instinct and Reason,' 'Homes and Domestic Habits," 'Geographical Distribution of Animals,' etc. As a result of a study of these funda- mental factors in the life and the interre- lations of animals, tin- student is not repelled by the tertiiiiiology of classification, but iii- evitablv must be attracted by the marvelous story of life atui itnpresseti by man's kitishi|> with the animals below him. It is, there- fore, not alone a book for the student, but also for the general reader. In the philosophic treatment of so wiile a range of topics the authors must necessarily consider many phenomena in the explanation of which authorities still differ, and we could wish, therefore, that in place of a certain positiveness of tone they had seeti fit to give more than one view of various disputed cases, if for no other reason than with an object ol pointing out litie^ for further research. For exatn|)le, tiie migration of birds is alluded (35)