I 9 o AXXALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



BOOK NOTICES. 



A HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS, showing the distribution of the 

 resident and migratory species in the British Islands, with an Index 

 to the records of the rarer visitants. By J. E. Harting, F.L.S., 

 F.Z.S. New and revised edition with 35 coloured plates carefully 

 reproduced from original drawings by the late Professor Schlegel. 

 (London: John C. Nimmo, 1901). 425. net. 



In the year 1872 Mr. Harting gave us the original edition of 

 the " Handbook of British Birds," a work which, owing to its special 

 features has proved to be most useful to ornithologists. That a 

 second edition was a desideratum we venture to think no one will 

 deny. 



The book before us, however, is something more than a new 

 and revised edition. It has been enlarged from the modest 198 

 pages, which formed the book of 1872, to 520 pages; and there 

 has been added a series of coloured plates whereon are depicted 

 the heads and feet of nearly every British bird ; both sexes being 

 figured where necessary, and, in some cases, seasonal plumage. 

 These pictures are reproductions of the excellent drawings in 

 Professor Schlegel's " De Vogels van Nederland." 



The subject is treated of in two sections. Part I. deals with the 

 British birds, properly so called, being residents, periodical migrants, 

 and annual visitants. Part II. is devoted to the rare and accidental 

 visitants, a list of whose occurrences is furnished. It is on this last 

 section that the raison d'etre of the book mainly rests. The study 

 of our British birds has progressed so rapidly during recent years 

 that the modern standard works on the subject have found it im- 

 possible to enumerate all the occurrences of rare visitors to our 

 shores. Mr. Harting's book aims, among other things, at supplying 

 this want, and therein lies its special value. 



We do not propose to criticise Part I., though Scottish ornitho- 

 logists will very properly take exception to a goodly number of the 

 statements made regarding native birds, such as, for example, the 

 averment that the Red-necked Phalarope breeds in Perthshire, 

 Inverness, and Sutherland. In Part II. one regrets extremely to 

 find that the omissions of Scottish records of rarities are both 

 numerous and important. The following have been detected 

 during a somewhat rapid perusal of the lists : Nutcracker in Wig- 



