1901. 123 



REVIEWS. 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



A Hand-book 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. B- HarTing, F.L.S., 

 F.Z.S., member of the British Ornithologists' Union. New and 

 revised edition, with thirty-five coloured plates, carefully repro- 

 duced from original drawings by the late Professor Schlegel. 

 London, 1901 : John C. Nimmo. Pp. xxxi. + 520. Price £2 2s. 

 net. 

 The second edition of Mr. Harting's hand-book far surpasses the first 

 edition both in size and general attractiveness. The number of pages 

 has been trebled ; and the addition of thirty-five coloured plates, repre- 

 senting the heads of 267 species, will make the book deservedly popular. 

 The plates are beautifully executed, and contain nearly 500 figures — so 

 as to show, where necessary, the distinction between old and young, 

 male and female, and summer and winter plumage. For the matter, Mr. 

 Harting's life-long services to zoology are a sufficient guarantee of its 

 general trustworthiness, and render superfluous any attempt to enumerate 

 the merits which are always discernible in what he writes. 



The book is divided into two parts, of which Part I. is devoted to 

 " British birds properly so-called," while Part II. serves the purposes of 

 a capacious appendix, to which are relegated "rare and accidental 

 visitants." The dividing line between the two classes thus separated is 

 not an easy one to draw. Mr. Harting includes the Roller and Bee-eater, 

 Purple Heron, Night Heron, Little Bittern, and Glaucous and Iceland 

 Gulls, in the category of " British birds properly so-called"; and so treats 

 of them in Part I., while consigning to Part II. the Greenland and Iceland 

 Falcons, Snowy Owl (which he characteristically calls "Snow Owl"), 

 and Squacco Heron. The object of this arrangement — in some respects 

 an inconvenient one — is to separate those species of which it is worth 

 while to enumerate every occurrence from those that are treated of in a 

 more general way ; and from this special point of view there is a good 

 deal to be said in its favour. Yet it may well seem strange to readers in 

 Ireland, where the Purple Heron has occurred once, and the Snowy 

 Owl upwards of thirty times. 



The classification followed is that of Yarrell's " History of British 

 Birds," fourth edition. To some this will appear like a perverse rejection 

 of the system more generally followed since the appearance of Saunders' 

 " Illustrated Manual," and the complaint that reference is rendered diffi- 

 cult by adherence to the older order, has recently been made in the pages of 

 this Journal with respect to another book. But it appears to the present 

 writer that so long as the fourth edition of Yarrell retains its recognised 

 pre-eminence as the best extant work on British birds, so long will it 



