136 NATURAL SCIENCE. August. 



no means primitive, but highly specialised in relation to a particular 

 diet, and that the resemblances between the two animals in question 

 are simply the result of convergence, due to similar environment and 

 mode of life. 



The last part of the volume is occupied by a brief account of the 

 fossil forms of the two orders, concerning which Mr, Lydekker can 

 speak with authority. It is to be hoped that a similar addition 

 may be made to the other volumes ; the divorce between descriptions 

 of recent and fossil forms has lasted too long already. 



Most of the plates were originally published in Jardine's 

 Naturalists' Library, but have been recoloured for the present issue, 

 while figures of some of the recently discovered species are added. 



British Passerines. 



A Handbook to the Birds of Great Britain. Allen's Naturalists' Library. 

 By R. Bowdler Sharpe, LL.D. Vol. i. 8vo. Pp. xix., 342, with coloured 

 plates. London: W. H. Allen & Co., 1894. Price 6s. 



The additional interest which nowadays attaches to most natural 

 history topics has naturally resulted in a rapid multiplication of 

 zoological works. This in itself is desirable enough, since students 

 always wish to keep their knowledge abreast of the times. The 

 misfortune is that some of the works which are most loudly trumpeted 

 by the public Press possess little real utility, being, in fact, merely 

 popular compilations of the harvesting of genuine workers in the 

 wide fields of Science. Happily, no such drawback attaches to the 

 charming little volume on British Passerine Birds, designed by 

 Dr. Sharpe to inaugurate the new " Naturalists' Library " which 

 Messrs. Allen propose to launch under his very competent editorship. 

 It is true that books on British birds are legion ; nevertheless, there 

 is always room for first-class work, and Dr. Sharpe's exceptional 

 experience stamps his pages with that imprimatur of authority which 

 we should look for in vain in many other popular works. Dr. 

 Sharpe has the resources of the national collection upon which to 

 base his conclusions. He is a good field naturalist himself, and 

 possesses a knowledge of modern ornithological literature second to 

 none. It is not, therefore, surprising that his new book has been 

 carefully planned and executed with the highest skill. It is well 

 printed, and misprints are hardly to be found. There are a few 

 trifling slips in Dr. Sharpe's definitions of the ranges of certain birds, 

 but none of these happen to be of any consequence. A more serious 

 drawback is the somewhat inadequate treatment meted out to nestling 

 birds. In this respect alone Dr. Sharpe is arbitrary and irregular. 

 For example, he describes the nest-dress of the young Creeper (Cf^//im), 

 but he says nothing about the first plumage of the true Flycatchers 

 {Musicapa). The first plumage of the Thrushes (Turdidas) is fully 

 explained, but nothing at all is said about the first plumage of the 

 Larks (Alaudidae), which is quite as noteworthy. We should like to 

 see the nest-dress of every species fully explained in the volumes which 

 are to follow. When we turn to Dr. Sharpe's descriptions of the habits 

 of birds, we find such frequent references to Mr. H. Seebohm that 

 a stranger might suppose that this distinguished traveller was our 

 only insular field naturalist. We do not wish to detract from the 

 merits of Mr. Seebohm's labours, which we value very highly ; but 

 Mr. Seebohm's field notes have been served up again and again 

 in his " History of British Birds," in his books on Siberia so-called, 

 in the Ibis, in Dresser's " Birds of Europe^" while popular com- 



