Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/558

526 new work, which is a marvel in cheapness, and a credit to the publishers.

The publication, which is to be completed in six volumes, has been entrusted to the authorship of some well-known ornithological writers, and Mr. Frohawk illustrates throughout, each bird being the subject of a full-page illustration, while the eggs are depicted in a series of coloured plates.

Volumes i. and ii. and a portion of vol. iii. are devoted to the Passeres and Picariæ, and have been entrusted to the care of Dr. A.G. Butler, an aviculturist who has had much experience with the first group in captivity, and is therefore able to add original observations made under such conditions, as well as facts relating to nidification derived from a personal collection of nests and eggs. This contribution contains a special feature as to the treatment and food of the species in confinement, in this respect resembling a well-known volume by Bechstein. Dr. Butler has avoided the illustration of our casual visitors, or "Rare British Birds," which we think would have added to the completeness of the work. Many, especially of the smaller birds, may be more frequent visitors than generally supposed. Although we hear much of bird slaughter, such can seldom be laid to the charge of a real or capable ornithologist, and the gun of the collector is not so ubiquitous as sometimes described. Could such a scrutiny be maintained over the area of these islands as was and perhaps is still pursued in Heligoland, many more visitors, such as warblers and other of the smaller birds, might be noticed, if not secured. The keeper's gun is more to be feared than that of the ornithologist, but the first is seldom discharged at warblers, though, alas! too often at our decreasing Accipitres. Should the same restrictive method be pursued by the other authors throughout the work, a supplementary volume might be issued for the reception of "Strangers."

"Striges" and "Accipitres" have been dealt with by the Rev. Murray A. Matthew. We gladly quote his plea for the Barn Owl, than which "there is, perhaps, hardly any other bird that is so persecuted, and so ungratefully repaid. When they cannot find any other excuse, keepers will say they kill them because they are 'unlucky.' There is no bird more commonly found stuffed and distorted in a case in cottages and farm-houses throughout