Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/213

Rh in an experience extending over forty years, should have acquired a fund of sporting anecdote and Natural-History love, of which probably the work before us gives but a small sample.

The fact of the book having reached a fourth edition, and having doubled its original size (the present issue being in two volumes instead of one), is of itself almost enough to disarm the critic, although the mere fact of a book passing through several editions is not always to be viewed as an indication of merit. In the present case, however, the author has laid himself open to very little criticism, and in one chapter only does he appear to have got at all out of his depth. This is the chapter on Hawking, in the second volume. Had he confined his remarks in this chapter to the account which he gives of a day's partridge-hawking in Dumbartonshire, no exception could possibly be taken, for his description is that of an eye-witness, the falconer being a gamekeeper and former pupil of old John Anderson, of hawking memory. But when, by way of preface to this narrative, he attempts a notice of the different hawks used by falconers, he makes half-a-dozen mistakes in almost as many lines. Had he possessed any personal knowledge of the subject, or even a slight acquaintance with its literature, he would not have committed himself to such misstatements as that the young male of the Goshawk is the Falcongentil, "and was once thought a distinct species"; that the Gerfalcon is "rather less than the gentil"; and that "these are rare in Scotland, although they occasionally build in some parts, particularly in the northern islands"!

In other chapters such slips as these do not occur, for the simple reason that Mr. Colquhoun has made sure of his facts by personal observation. His first volume deals with Deer-stalking, Roehunting, Seal-shooting, and the pursuit of Capercaillie, Grouse, Ptarmigan, Woodcock, Snipe, and Wild-fowl, in the details of which the author has judiciously mingled much practical advice with the narrative of many a sporting incident. On this account, to a sportsman, his chapters are eminently readable aud entertaining.

A considerable portion of the second volume is devoted to Fishing in all its branches on loch, sea and river, but the earlier chapters are occupied with some account of the various wild animals which the author has met with in the course of his rambles, as the Marten, the Wild Cat, the Otter, and Badger.