Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/177

Rh the Occasional Visitors being left out; also of the Resident and Migrant Picariæ, Striges, Accipitres, and Columbæ, the same reservation being made to the Occasional Visitors." Fifty-three species are figured, and form subjects for forty-two handsome coloured plates.

The story of our British birds has been told in many ways and by many writers. This volume may almost be said to be devoted to their iconography. The author seems to have taken it for granted that there was not much left to be written about his subject, and to have limited himself absolutely to describing the plumage and its seasonal vicissitudes. In this course, individually, he was probably justified; a good book is not necessarily one that exhausts its subject; it should, however, completely deal with its selected theme. We must therefore refer to the illustrations, and by these the work will be known.

The plates all bear the initials of the author, and have evidently proved a labour of love. Not only have we life-like portraits of the birds, but their environment has been sketched in no inartistic manner, and we almost seem to recognize some of the landscapes which an excellent insular prejudice has made us love so well. The homestead behind the Spotted Flycatchers is a case in point, while the background to the Tree-Pipit makes us almost believe we are at home on the Surrey hills. A sketch of the true environment of a bird is no mean hint as to its habits, and, in looking over our skins obtained in other lands, a mental picture of the scenery where it was procured appears to pertain to each specimen. Apart from its value to all lovers of our avifauna, it would perhaps be difficult to select a more acceptable present to a British naturalist residing abroad than this beautiful representation of the well-remembered birds of the old country.

our volume for 1898 (p. 132) we noticed, at such length as is available in our pages, 'A Text-Book of Zoology,' in two volumes, by the above authors. The present publication may be