Ornithology and Odlogy of New England. By Edward A. Samneb3.
(Boston : Nichols and Noyes ; London : Low, Son, and Marston.)—A. handsome, well printed, and well illustrated work, which does credit to its American writer and its American printers. The birds of New Eng- land and their eggs are portrayed with nicety, though not in colours, and the descriptions, besides being learned and copious, are often in- teresting. The way in which the goshawk singles out a bird from a flock, gives it a slight squeeze with liis talons, and drops it to await his convenience while he goes through the same process with another, is equalled by the dodging match between a goshawk and squirrel which Mr. Samuels witnessed near Boston. He tells us, too, of an attack made on some ducks by a Cooper's or Stanley hawk, and of the dives by which the young ducks endeavoured to evade their pursuer. We are almost sorry to learn that the Golden Eagle is so rare in New Eng- land as to have given Mr. Samuels no opportunity of studying its habits. We should have been glad of a chapter on the subject of the eagle like those from which we have quoted.
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