Book News and reviews
The Sequence of Plumages and Moults of the Passerine Birds of New York. By Jonathan Dwight, 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 which are in part presented in the present paper[1] of over 250 pages.
The work is far too extended for us to review it in detail; furthermore, we hope later that Dr. Dwight will himself favor Bird-Lore's readers with an extended ré- sumé of his studies. We append, therefore, only a list of the eight leading heads under which the subject has been treated: 1. 'Indoor Study of Moult.' 2. ' Process of Moult.' 3. ' Early Plumages and Moults of Young Birds.' 4. ' Sequence of Plumages and Moults.' 5. ' Color Facts, vs. ries.' 6. 'Outdoor Study of Moult. " 7. 'Plumages and Moults of New York Species.' 8. ' Bibliography.'
To this brief table of contents we mav add our estimate that Dr. Deight 's work is the most important contribution to American 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. 12mo, page ix+329. Numerous illustrations.
This is a text-book which adequately presents 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 suggestive headings as 'The Life Cycle,' 'Function and Structure,' 'Adaptations,' 'Parasitism and Degeneration,' 'Protective Resemblances and Mimicry,' 'Instinct and Reason,' 'Homes and Domestic Habits,' 'Geographical Distribution of Animals,' etc. As a result of a study of these fundamental factors in the life and the interrelations of animals, the student is not repelled by the terminology of classification, but inevitably must be attracted by the marvelous story of life and impressed by man's kinship with the animals below him. It is, therefore, not alone a book for the student, but also for the general reader.
In the philosophic treatment of so wide 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 seen fit to give more than one view of various disputed cases, if for no other reason than with an object of pointing out lines for further research. For
example, the migration of birds is alluded
(35)
- ↑ For additional papers by Dr. Dwight on the molt of birds, see the following: The 'Moult of the North American Tetraonidæ (Quails, Partridnes, Grouse);' "The Auk,' 1900, pp. 34–51, 143–166; 'The Moult of the North American Shore Birds; (Limicolæ), ibid. , pp. 368–385; 'The Sequence of Moults and Plumages of the Laridæ (Gulls and Terns)," ibid. 1601. pp. 49–63
