1908. Reviews 87 



A BOOK OF BIRDS. 



A Book of Birds. By W. P. Pycraft, A.L.S., F.Z.S. Pp. 156; with 

 30 full-page, coloured plates, and many illustrations in the text. 

 London : Sidney Appleton, 1908. Price, 6j-. net. 



This attractive volume is uniform in appearance with Mr. W. F. 

 Kirby's " Mammals of the World," lately noticed in this magazine. It 

 can be recommended as, on the whole, a trustworthy and fascinating 

 introduction to ornithology. The opening chapter contains an account 

 of the structure of birds in which the characteristic features of the 

 skeleton, feathers, and, more briefly, of the internal anatomy are 

 described with care and accuracy, attention being especially called to 

 the points of affinity between birds and reptiles. The short description 

 of Archaeopteryx is particularly' good, and the evolutionary standpoint 

 of this chapter cannot fail to be stimulating to the beginner who may 

 read it. 



In the succeeding sixteen chapters the various orders of birds are 

 dealt with in ascending order according to the revised modern classifi- 

 cation, the species figured in the coloured plates being chosen for 

 special description. In sketching the distribution of our native birds, 

 Mr. Pycraft has not neglected Ireland ; for example, the recent spread 

 of the Tree-sparrow in Co. Dublin has not been overlooked. Various 

 errors — such as the statement that " the Yellow Wagtail is an extremely 

 common bird in parts of Ireland," and the implication that the Tree- 

 Pipit (''fairly distributed throughout the British Islands") is an Irish 

 bird — may be corrected in a second edition. 



G. U. C. 



OBITUARY, 



REV. WILLIAM RICHARDSON LINTON. 



The death on January 4, at the age of 57 years, of Rev. W. R. lyinton, 

 M A., F.L.S.^ Vicar of Shirley, removes one of the most energetic and acute 

 of British field botanists. His earlier work in Britain was done mostly in 

 Scotland; later he devoted much time to the working out of the botany 

 of the county in which he was long resident, and the result appeared in 

 his " Flora of Derb3-shire " in 1903. He studied especially critical 

 plants, issuing in conjunction with his brother and others the well-known 

 sets of British Rubi, Willows, and Hieracia. His latest work was the 

 "Account of the British Hieracia, " published in 1905. Linton twice 

 made a botanical tour in Ireland — in 1S85, when he gathered many of the 

 endemic species, and again in 1895, when he studied Rubi, Characese, &c., 

 with H, C. lyevinge in Westmeath. 



