274 



NATURAL SCIENCE. April. 



Newton's Birds. 



A Dictionary of Birds. By Alfred Newton, assisted by Hans Gadow. Part iii. 

 London : Adam & Charles Black, 1894. 7s. 6d. nett. 



Subscribers to this invaluable work will have made themselves by 

 this time fairly well acquainted with the contents of part iii. ; for the 

 sake of those who are not already subscribers, we indicate briefly the 

 nature of some of what we deem to be the principal articles. 



Dr. Gadow's contribution on the muscular system will certainly 

 be welcomed. Those of us who are inclined to place faith in the 

 muscular system, as a key with which to unlock the vexed question of 

 Taxonomy, will probably " have doubts " as to the stability of that 

 same faith when we read that " the taxonomic value of muscles is 

 theoretically great, but very limited when put to a practical test. 

 . . . To pick out a few of the most variable muscles of the leg, and 

 to arrange birds according to their presence or absence . . . is an 

 easy, but scarcely serious, mode of investigation. . . It is certain 

 that similar muscular combinations in two or more birds do not neces- 

 sarily mean relationship . . ." 



By these statements, however, we are not, of course, to imagine 

 that Dr. Gadow would entirely veto the use of the muscles as a factor 

 in classification, but that he would rather urge caution and discrimi- 

 nation. Several figures help to make clear what is, at best, a difficult 

 matter to describe ; not the least acceptable will be those representing 

 the now celebrated flexor tendons of the foot— the flexor perforans 

 digitorum and flexor longus hallucis— which, it will be remembered, a 

 few years ago were brought into such considerable prominence by that 

 enthusiastic ornithotomist, the late Professor Garrod. 



The articles Owl, Parrot, Partridge, and Pheasant are delight 

 fully readable, the last two especially so, carrying us back, as they 

 do, to the days before the use of firearms ; and, later, contrasting the 

 conditions of sport obtaining up to the middle of this century with 

 those now in vogue. We have, indeed, besides a mass of valuable 

 historical information relative to the introduction of these birds, a sort 

 of supplementary essay on game-preserving, shooting, etc. 



A unique feature of this dictionary is the footnotes. We fed 

 almost tempted to regard these as more important than the main 

 part of the book itself. These footnotes, though never more than a 

 few lines in length, are yet essays in themselves : now we have 

 knotty points in etymology, now an anecdote, or some gem rescued 

 from the classics, and, again, something drawn from the Professor's 

 vast resources which have accumulated during his long life of active 

 work. They contain, in short, a kind of information which cannot be 

 appreciated until experience has taught what laborious research and 

 wide knowledge have been brought to bear upon their compilation. 



The present number includes articles from " Moa " to " Sheath- 

 bill," hence it will be seen that but the merest outline has been given 

 of its contents. If we mistake not, the good wine is yet to come in 

 Professor Newton's " Introduction," the appearance of which we 

 are looking forward to on the very tip-toe of expectation. 



Probably no book which has ever seen the light has been 

 allowed to be entirely perfect — especially by the reviewer — and we 

 have already intimated that the "Dictionary of Birds" must not be 

 excepted. We here again reiterate our objections to Swainson's 

 figures, which, we feel, have been unduly honoured in finding a place 

 in the pages of this work. Next, as regards the figures illustrating 

 Dr. Gadow's contributions. These, although helpful, are not always, 



