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 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.