Frank Bolles; but they do not appear in the hand-books, and, as Mr. Chamberlain remarks, "in comparison with the work accomplished by the older writers, and with that which is still unknown, the recent acquisitions must be considered slight." Nuttall's work has been out of print for several years; but its popularity and real value have kept it in demand, and the few copies recently offered for sale were disposed of at high prices. In publishing the new edition instead of issuing it in the form of the original, or remodeling it to the extent that would be required to arrange it in harmony with the new system in ornithology, the editor has reproduced Nuttall's biographies with few changes beyond pruning them of what was obsolete; has added, in notes distinguished by smaller type, such new facts as seemed needed to bring the descriptions into conformity with the present state of the science; has rewritten the descriptions of plumage, endeavoring to phrase them in well-known and untechnical terms, so that they may be understood by unskilled readers; and has added a description of the nest and eggs of each species. The untechnical character of the work, and the use of simple, well-known terms in the descriptions, are a feature on which the publishers speak with some pride. Canadian readers have been kept in mind, and accounts are given of every species that has been found within the Dominion east of the Manitoba plains, and of their Canadian distribution. The editor is a specialist in ornithology, on which he has published numerous articles in periodicals devoted tc the science and monographs. We were interested in reading Nuttall's introduction, which is given entire and unchanged, a foreshadowing of the doctrine of protective mimicry which has been made prominent by Mr A. R. Wallace. Some birds, it is observed, "are screened from the attacks of their enemies by an arrangement of colors assimilated to the places which they most frequent for subsistence and repose; thus the wryneck is scarcely to be distinguished from the tree on which it seeks its food; or the snipe from the soft and springy ground which it frequents. The great plover finds its chief security in stony places, to which its colors are so nicely adapted that the most exact observer may be deceived. The same resort is taken advantage of by the night-hawk, partridge, plover, and the American quail the young brood of which squat on the ground, instinctively conscious of being nearly invisible, from their close resemblance to the broken ground on which they lie, and trust to this natural concealment. The same kind of deceptive and protecting artifice is often employed by birds to conceal or render the appearance of their nests ambiguous. Thus the European wren forms its nest externally of hay, if against a hay-rick; covered with lichens, if the tree chosen is so clad; or made of green moss, when the decayed trunk in which it is built is thus covered; and then, wholly closing it above, leaves a concealed entry in the side. Our humming-bird, by external patches of lichen, gives her nest the appearance of a moss-grown knot. A similar artifice is adopted by our yellow-breasted fly-catcher, or vireo, and others." The first volume is devoted to land birds, the second to game and water birds. The accounts are confined to birds known east of the Mississippi Valley. The work is published in beautiful style, with pictorial illustrations that it would be hard to excel of most of the species, and a colored plate in each volume.
Christianity and Infallibility: Both or Neither. By the Rev. Daniel Lyons. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 284. Price, $1.50.
This book bears the nihil obstat (no objection) of D. Pantauella, S. J., and the imprimatur of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Denver, It was written under the influence of the conviction which the author believes the logic of facts is daily confirming, that "Christianity, to maintain its rightful hold on the reason and conscience of men, needs a living, infallible witness to its truths and principles; a living, infallible guardian of its purity and integrity, and a living, infallible interpreter of its meaning." The doctrine of infallibility, he believes, "goes to the very root of the Christian controversy, and supplies the only complete and satisfactory solution of the many and grave difficulties which it involves." Grant it, and in it "you have a ready, easy, and at the same time a perfectly satisfactory solution of the religious controversy with all its difficulties. Reject
