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136 Pp. 176. 40 cents; Book IV. Pp. 216. 40 cents. New York: The Macmillan Company.

Neff, S. S., Editor and Publisher. The Orator. Monthly. August, 1897. Philadelphia: 1414 Arch Street. Pp. 16. 15 cents; $1 a year.

Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson The New Man. A Chronicle of the Modern Time. Philadelphia: The Levytype Company. Pp. 487.

Parish, Edmund. Hallucinations and Illusions. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, importers. Pp. 390. $1.25.

Quixote, Sancho. Speshal Aurdinans of Dunshalt, "the Mishuneri Siti." New York: William Arthur. Pp. 32. 5 cents.

Reprints. Adler, Cyrus: The International Catalogue of Scientific Literature. Pp. 39.—Barton, G. H.: Glacial Observations in the Umanak District, Greenland. Pp. 32, with plates.—Fox, L. W., M. D.: Epiphora, or Watery Eye, etc. Pp. 8.—Dorsey, G. A.: Observations on a Collection of Papuan Crania, with Notes by W. H. Holmes. Pp. 48, with plates.—Rotch, A. L.: Meteorological Observations in the Free Air at the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory. Pp. 8.—Russel, I. F.: The Vendetta, or How Law evolves from the Patriarchal Cell. Pp. 12.—Trelease, William, Medical Botany. Pp. 12—Veeder, M. A. Lyons, N. Y.: Ice Jams in Geology. Pp. 8.—Walcott, C. D.: Cambrian Brachiopoda, etc. Pp. 12, with plates.

Russell, Israel C. The Volcanoes of North America. A Reading Lesson for Students of Geography and Geology. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 346. $4.

Scripture, E. W. The New Psychology. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, importers. Pp. 500. $1.25.

Starling, William. The Floods of the Mississippi River. New York: Engineering News. Pp. 57.

Topham, T. W., M. D. Health of Body and Mind. Brooklyn Borough, New York City: Daily Eagle Book Publishing Department. Pp. 296.

Trelease, William. Botanical Observations on the Azores. St. Louis: Missouri Botanical Garden Pp. 140, with 54 plates.

United States Geological Survey, Charles D. Walcott, Director. Seventeenth Annual Report. Part I. Director's Report and other Papers. Pp. 1076, with plates and maps; Part II. Economic Geology and Hydrography. Pp. 864, with plates and maps.—Bulletins: No. 87. American Fossil Brachiopoda. By Charles Schuchert. Pp. 464; No. 127. Catalogue and Index to Contributions to North American Geology, 1732 to 1891. By N. H. Darton. Pp. 1045; No. 132. Bibliography and Index of North American Geology, Paleontology, Petrology, and Mineralogy for 1892-'93. By F. B. Weeks. Pp. 210; No. 135. Do. for 1894. The same. Pp. 141; No. 136. The Ancient Volcanic Rocks of South Mountain, Pennsylvania. By Florence Bascom. Pp. 91, with plates; No. 137. Geology of Fort Riley Military Reservation, etc., Kansas. By Robert Hay. Pp. 35; No. 138. Artesian Well Prospects in the Atlantic Coastal Plain Region. By N. H. Darton. Pp 224; No. 139. Geology of the Castle Mountain Mining District, Montana. By W H. Weed and L. V. Pirsson. Pp. 164; No. 140. Report of Progress in the Division of Hydrography for 1895. By F. H. Newell Pp. 356; No. 141. The Eocene Deposits of the Middle Atlantic Slope in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. By W. B. Clark; No. 142. A Brief Contribution to the Geology of Northwestern Louisiana. By T. W. Vaughan. Pp. 65; No. 143. Bibliography of Clays and the Ceramic Arts. By J. C. Branner. Pp. 114; The Moraines of the Missouri Coteau and their Attendant Deposits. By J. E Todd. Pp. 69; No. 145. The Potomac Formation in Virginia. By W. M. Fontaine. Pp. 149; No. 146. Bibliography of North American Geology, Palæontology, and Mineralogy for 1896. By F. B. Weeks. Pp. 130; No. 147. Earthquakes in California in 1895. By C. D. Perrine. Pp. 22; No. 148. Analyses of Rocks and Analytical Methods of the United States Geological Survey, 1880 to 1886. By F. W. Clarke and W. F. Hillebrand. Pp. 306.

Weed, Clarence Morris. Life Histories of American Insects New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 272. $1.50.



Birds and Farm Pests.—Mr. F. E. L. Beal, in a paper on Some Common Birds in their Relation to Agriculture, observes that whether a bird is injurious or beneficial depends almost entirely on what it eats. If crows or blackbirds are seen in numbers about cornfields, or if woodpeckers are noticed at work in an orchard, it is perhaps not surprising that they are accused of doing harm. Careful investigation, however, often shows that they are actually destroying noxious insects, and also that even those which do harm at one season may compensate for it by eating noxious species at another. Insects are eaten at all times by the majority of land birds, and during the breeding season most kinds subsist largely and rear their young exclusively on this food. When insects are unusually plentiful they are eaten by many birds which ordinarily do not touch them. Within certain limits birds feed upon the kind of food that is most accessible. Thus, as a rule, insectivorous birds eat the insects that are most easily obtained, provided they do not have some peculiarly disagreeable property. It is not probable that a bird habitually passes by one kind of insect to look for another that is more appetizing, and there seems little evidence in support of the theory that the selection of food is restricted to any particular species of insect, for it is evident that a bird eats those which by its own method of seeking are most easily obtained. Thus, a ground-feeding bird eats those it finds among the dead leaves and grass; a flycatcher captures 