Evening star., 1945-02-10
This and That
Bu Charles z. Trdce1CeU.

There weren't as many books about
birds published last year as in the years
before, but still there were some re-
markably good ones.
Birds are always with us, thank
heaven, to delight us with their songs
and happy ways, and to help us with
our gardens and crops.
Today, more than ever, they give us
sense of other worldliness, calling Of
sensibility to sense
Whether they can, alone, recall man.
kind to the common sense of the proper
usage of the worlds treasures is ques-
ton.
No doubt 1t will take the hopes and
dreams and honest work of consecrated
men and women the world over before
all of us have torn ourselves from the
false dreams of glory, and put ourselves
once again, as collective world, on the
path of human decency.
In the meantime, the birds are helping
us the best they can.
They put before us every day picture
of the right use of Gods treasures.
Books about birds are good, because
sensible persons love books, and find
that they make everything they are in
terested in more real.
The list of recently published bird
books, prepared by the Library Commit
tee of the Audubon Society of the Dis
trict of Columbia, includes the following
items:
Cuban Ornithology," by Thomas Bar
bour; "A Naturalist at Large" by
Thomas Barbour; That Vanishing
Eden: A Naturalist S Florida" +" by Thomas
Barbour; The Book of Naturalists,"
by William Beebe; Birds of the Cen
trail Pacific Ocean," by Thomas M.
Blackman: There Are No Dull Dark
Days." by Percy Thayer Blogg.
Alaska Bird Trails" by Herbert
Brandt; "One Day on Beetle Rock" by
Sally Carrighar; "An Atlas of Avian
Anatomy" by Frank Wilbut Chamber
lain; THE Song of the Wood Pewee:
A Study of Bird Music" by Wallace
Craig.
THE Murmur of Wings" by Leonard
Dubkin; '"The Centennial Checklist of
), the Birds of Cumberland County, Pa,
and Her Borders" by Edward Snively
Frey.
Natural Principles of Land Use," by
Edward L. Graham; Travels in Georgia
and Florida" edited by Francis Harper;
Practical Pigeon Production" by Shep-
pard Knapp Haynes.
IAN Illustrated Encyclopedias of
American Birds by Leon Augustus
Hausman The Canvasbaek on a
Prairie Marsh" by Hans Albert Hoch-
baum.
Game Birds of America" by Ray
mond Prunty Holland; "The Art of Bird
Photography" by Eric j. Hosking and
Cyril William Newberry; "Woodcock, /"
by John Alden Knight; "The Zoology
and Management Of the American
Woodcock," by Howard Lewis Mendall
and Clarence M. Aldous
Birds of Hawaii" by George Camp
bell Munro; Consider the Birds" by
Laurens Christopher Sargent; Prairie
Chicken in Missouri" by Charles w.
Schwartz; "Audubon's Journey Up the
Missouri River" by O. A. Stevens; ''Talk
About Wildlife for Hunters, Fishermen
and Nature Lovers" by Ross Oliver Stew
ems, and THE Art of Falconry," by
Casey A. Wood and F. M. Fyfe.
The book about the birds of the Pacific
ought to be of great interest to service
men and their relatives. The same may
be said of the volume about the birds Of
Hawaii. There is great deal of public
misundertandin about bird life in Ha-
waii, even by persons who have been
there.
There are two particularly. felicitous
titles in the list, we think. "The Murmur
Of Wings" and There Are No Dull Dark
Days" While somewhat long, the latter
title exactly describes what interest in
the birds viii do for one. Even the in
valid, If he has birds at the window, and
hears the murmur of wings, will find
mental sunshine both inside and outside
the pane.
Dr.. Hausman's book has already had
. large sale locally, partly due to Its
very modest price. It is q lot Of book for
the money.
It will be Of interest to many to learn
that any one could write an entire book
Of 1876 pages on the single subject Of the
song OF the wood pewee. But bird watch
ing has that effect on one,