1902, Reviews. 27 



ORNITHOLOGY MADE EASY. 



In the December number of the Irish Naturalist I see a review signed 

 "C.B.M.," of an elementary book on Birds, by David J. Price. I know 

 nothing of the book or its author. But I object very strongly to the 

 style of that criticism. 



No book can be perfect ; omissions can be rectified, mistakes or 

 ••blundering statements," as "C.B.M." so crudely calls them, 0/ cours 

 should not occur. They also can be corrected. If the worst is the one 

 mentioned by " C.B.M.," I do not see that great harm is done, as view- 

 ing the price of the book and its non-scientific character it can never 

 have had any pretension to become a scientific ornithological handbook 

 It is not necessarj' or expedient to chastise an author with scorpions. 



There is one sentence which, to my mind, is very ill-advised, viz.: — 

 "We venture to think that the beginner who needs (or imagines he needs) 

 •• this kind of ' ready aid ' might as well remain in ignorance, which has 

 ••hitherto sat so easily upon him." 



" C.B.M." writes as if every student of ornithology had a library at his 

 command, either in his house or in the neighbourhood. Ornithological 

 books are very expensive. Their cost prohibits many from following 

 their bent in that line unless they live near museums, public libraries, &c. 



Such books, also, are full of scientific terms and names and are, 

 therefore, useless to uneducated people. 



If we want to extend our knowledge of the habits, migrations, &c., of 

 our birds, we must have a book for non-scientific semi-educated people, 

 and which can be purchased at a small cost. 



I have tried for years to obtain such books to distribute in this district 

 to gamekeepers, caretakers of bogs, small farmers, &., on ornithology, 

 entomology, botany, but I invariably find that such books are either too 

 scientific in phraseology or are written for children ; very prettily 

 written, but for children only. 



I would, therefore, ask scientific writers to consider this fact, viz., that 

 their very humble brothers could and would do much to assist them in 

 their great work, in solving many of Nature's problems, if they were 

 allowed to help. They are debarred from this at present. Terms that 

 are quite familiar to any educated naturalist are G^-eek to the man in a 

 bog cabin — yet he could be a most useful observer, and with a book 

 which he could understand would take deep interest in the subject. 



Scientific men also could be more lenient with their less well-informed 

 followers. Such a critique, which I regret to have seen in this Magazine, 

 is quite sufficient to deter any man from ever correcting mistakes in a 

 book already written, and prevent any non-scientific but keen observer 

 from writing a popular non-scientific book on subjects on which we all 

 want information. 



k. B. Dii,i,ON 



Clonbrock, Co. Galway. 



