19 1 2. Reviews. 123 



previous volumes, every species, variety, and form is illustrated, and 

 needless to say, the plates, many of which are coloured, maintain the same 

 high standard of excellence. There is an additional bibliography bringing 

 the literature down to date. 



J. A. 



BIRDS AND THEIR WAYS. 



The British Bird Book. Edited by F. B. Kirkman, B.A., Oxon. 

 Parts vi. to viii. London and Edinburgh ; T. C. and E. C. Jack.. 



The three parts of the British Bird Book which have appeared since 

 our last notice (September 191 1) well maintain, and in some respects 

 surpass, the high standard of their predecessors. There is a nearer 

 approach to unity of plan, and the lumping together of large groups of 

 species in single chapters — as was done with the Finches, for instance, in 

 Part I. — is avoided. The families dealt with are ten — Strigidae, 

 Coraciidae, Upupidae, Alcedinidae, Cuculidae, Columbidae, Pteroclidae, 

 Alcidae, Laridae, and (in part) Limicolae. As might be expected, many 

 of the coloured plates are extremely attractive. A large majority are 

 by the excellent hand of Mr. Seaby, whose views of the Cuckoo uttering 

 its note, Sandwich Terns in a nesting colon}-, a pair of Red-necked 

 Phalaropes in the courtship season, and a Common Snipe crouching, may 

 be noted as among his most successful performances. There are also 

 some highly animated plates by Mr. Lodge, and Miss Winifred Austen 

 gives a remarkably pretty plumage -study in her adult and immature 

 Rollers, her next best contribution being probably that of the Glaucous 

 Gull. 



The principal writers in the part before us are Mr. Pycraft, Mr. Kirkman, 

 the Rev. F. C. Jourdain, and Mr. WiUiam Farren. It is of some interest 

 to note that Mr. Pycraft, in his account of the Owls, accepts the occasional 

 luminosity of the Barn-Owl as something established beyond doubt ; 

 but the need for further inquiry as to a possible explanation is admitted. 

 Mr. Pycraft's chapters are speciall)^ characterised by the amount of 

 attention he gives to nuptial displays and notes. On this subject he 

 has collected a large amount of valuable matter, much of which is 

 admirably presented. Yet there is evidently some risk of readers being 

 misled by these descriptions when they are not absolutely first-hand, 

 and are furnished — as is apparently Mr. Pycraft's practice — by piecing 

 together the evidence of different witnesses. There must often be some 

 uncertainty as to whether two describers are referring to the same or to 

 different phases of the courtship period' — whether the note syllabled or 

 described in a particular way by one observer is or is not really different 

 from the note which another observer has syllabled or described in a 

 very different fashion. Mr, Pycraft's descriptions of the nuptial 



