Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/556

524 omitted. Many field observations require to be canonised by repetition, whilst a habit or characteristic, resting on a record beyond question, may still prove to be but an individual occurrence based on a local circumstance. We cannot have too many of these records; they are generally valuable and always suggestive, but the task of sifting and arranging them, of focussing the important, and not altogether discarding the less prominent, requires a master-hand. Dr. Sharpe, in the opening sentence of his Preface, remarks:—"Every ornithologist who, in the course of his career, may be called upon to write a book upon British Birds, will always find this to be one of the most interesting, but certainly one of the most difficult tasks which he has ever undertaken. He is sure to discover that not only is the path well-worn, but that the work of his many predecessors has been so well done that little chance of originality remains to him." The rule may be true, but this work is certainly an exception to it.

Our author commences with the Passeriformes, and places at their head the family Corvidæ, for which he gives his reasons. The Accipitres are divided into two sub -orders— for the Ospreys; and which "includes every Accipitrine bird except the Ospreys and the Owls." Geese, Swans, and Ducks precede the Herons, Storks, and Ibises. Cranes follow, and then the Bustards and Plovers, the Thick-knees being considered Bustard-like Plovers "and forming the connecting-link with the True Plovers." Gulls, which, "though at first sight very different in appearance from the Plovers, are really allied to them, "precede the Petrels , which are followed by the Divers , Grebes , and the Rails. The Pigeons, the Sand Grouse , and the Game-birds conclude the series.

A very thorough method is pursued throughout. The genus is shortly described by its principal structural characters, and its geographical distribution detailed. Each species is dealt with in sections, and is described under the stages of "Adult Male," "Adult Female," and "Young." Then we find its "Range in Great Britain," followed by what is much rarer in hand-books,