At once the messenger of Heaven I kenned,
And toward my master turned, who made a sign
That hushed I should remain, and lowly bend.
Ah me, how full he looked of scorn divine!"

_Ornithology and Ooelogy of New England: containing full
Descriptions of the Birds of New England, and adjoining States
and Provinces, arranged by a long-approved Classification and
Nomenclature; together with a complete History of their Habits,
Times of Arrival and Departure, their Distribution, Food, Song,
Time of Breeding, and a careful and accurate Description of
their Nests and Eggs; with Illustrations of many Species of the
Birds, and accurate Figures of their Eggs_. By EDWARD A.
SAMUELS, Curator of Zooelogy in the Massachusetts State Cabinet.
Boston: Nichols and Noyes.

The strong point of this book is, that it monopolizes the ground, and
has no rivals. While no branch of natural history has called forth in
America such arduous research as ornithology, or such eloquent writing,
there has yet been for many years no popular manual in print. Audubon,
Wilson, Nuttall, are all practically inaccessible to the ordinary
purchaser. Moreover, there have been great advances in scientific
classification, and also in field knowledge, since those earlier works
appeared. There is therefore an admirable field for any new writer.

Mr. Samuels frankly acknowledges on his first page that he is mainly
indebted to Professor Baird of the Smithsonian Institute for what is by
far the most valuable portion of his book,--the classification, the
nomenclature, and the generic and specific descriptions. He is only
responsible for the popular descriptions; but even these consist so very
largely of quotations that the whole book must evidently be judged
rather as a compilation than as an original work.

Considered as a compilation, it is valuable, though its title-page
unfortunately promises more than any work on natural history ever yet
performed, and so prepares the way for disappointment. Mr. Samuels
appears to be a zealous and accurate ornithologist, with plenty of
field-knowledge, but very little descriptive power. Being apparently
conscious of this, he is shy of delineating the rarer birds, because he
does not personally know them, while he passes hastily over the more
familiar, because "their habits are known to all." This last piece of
abstinence is greatly to be regretted. For a local man