134 Tlie Irish Nahiralist. Nov.-Dec, 



REVIEWS. 



A NEW BOOK ON BIRD5. 



A Practical Handbook oi British Birds. Edited by H. F. Witherby, 

 F.Z.S., M.B.O.U., Editor of British Birds. Authors of Various Sections : 

 Ernst Hartert, Ph.D., M.B.O.U. ; Annie C. Jackson, H.M.B.O.U. ; 

 Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain, M.A., M.B.O.U. ; C. Oldham, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. ; 

 Norman Ticehurst, M.A., F.R.C.S., M.B.O.U. ; and the Editor. Illus- 

 trated with Coloured Plates and Numerous Text Figures. In Eighteen 

 Parts. London : Witherby & Co. Price 4s. net per Part. 



Mr. Witherby's Handbook, of which four parts have now appeared, 

 is no uncalled for addition to the considerable number of manuals bearing 

 similar titles that recent years have produced. Its appearance was, in 

 fact, rendered necessary by the publication seven years ago of the " H nd- 

 List of British Birds," in which Mr. Hartert, with the aid of most of the 

 collaborators in the book now before us, endeavoured to bring into general 

 use the system of trinomial nomenclature, so applied as to give sub- 

 specific recognition to a large number of local races not hitherto looked 

 on as distinct. Ornithologists still differ as to the admissibility of several 

 of these " splits " ; but there can be no doubt as to the importance of 

 proper attention to the variations, great or small, on which they are 

 based. The essential feature in Mr. Witherby's book is the minuteness 

 with which it describes every form that the authors of the " Hand-List " 

 of 19 1 2 (wliich gave no descriptions) pronounced deserving of subspecific 

 rank. From the parts already published, which treat of the Corvidae, 

 Sturnidae, Oriolidae, Fringillidae, Alaudidae, Motacillidae, Certhiidae, 

 Sittidae, Paridae, and Laniidae, it can plainly be seen that no pains have 

 been spared towards the adequate discharge of this necessary work. 

 It will not be possible until the whole book is before us to judge whether 

 the nomenclature advocated by the authors can ever come into real use 

 among field-ornithologists, or whether it will remain a language limited 

 in use to discussions on museum specimens. 



At the present stage of our information, it is not use, but abuse of the 

 trinomial nomenclature to apply its terms in records of field observations, 

 when the observer can only guess on geographical grounds that the bird 

 which forms the subject of his note was probably of the race known to 

 frequent the locality where the observation was made. It is clear that 

 without fuller descriptions than have yet been available no observer 

 could identify more than a very small number of these subspecific forms, 

 unless in the shape of dead specimens. Whether things will be much 

 mended in this direction by the publication of all that Mr. Witherby 

 and his colleagues have to tell us is far from evident ; but his book is 

 much needed to settle the matter. 



The descriptions are aided by illustrations, of which we are told that 

 they are " intended solely as aids to identification." Many of them will 

 be of much use for this purpose ; but the one that Irish readers will first 

 turn to is one on which the publishers cannot be congratulated. The 



