,«^. SOME NEW BOOKS. 707 



not only summarises Ihc long labours of the authors, both of whom 

 are veteran ornithologists whose names carry weight, but it further 

 supplies reference to almost all the rarest birds that have ever 

 straggled to Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. The text is 

 massive and full of detail. We should, however, have been glad if 

 the authors had excised certain portions of their book, such as the 

 long and somewhat superfluous dissertations on the families of birds, 

 which occupy space and tend to obscure much more interesting 

 details. The authors also do not always succeed in bringing the 

 most important facts at their disposal into prominence. 



Mr. Murray Mathew is one of the few professed ornithologists 

 who have seen Sabine's Gull alive on the coast of Britain ; but he 

 relates his experiences thereon with such excessive modesty, and such 

 an absence of feeling, that one would imagine he felt no emotion at 

 all in such a remarkable position. Other instances in which the 

 writers have failed to do justice to their own researches could easily 

 be cited ; but the work, taken as a whole, is an admirable monument 

 to the patient and protracted labours of two English gentlemen, who 

 study birds as born naturalists, and not as collectors. 



Not the least attractive feature of this fine volume is furnished 

 by four beautiful plates from the brush of that skilled artist, Mr. 

 Keulemans, representing the Black Redstart, Montagu's Harrier 

 (black variety). Rough-legged Buzzard (black variety), and Great 

 Black-headed Gull. 



The frontispiece is a sketch of " Yes Tor," the home of the Ring 

 Ouzel, executed by the late W. H. M. D'Urban, The volume is 

 tastefully bound, printed in good type, and supplied with a useful 

 working index. We trust that it will find a place in the library ot 

 every British ornithologist. 



The Birds of Lancashire. By F. S. Mitchell, Member of the British Ornitho- 

 logists' Union. Second edition. Revised and edited by Howard Saunders, 

 F.L.S.. F.Z S. With additions by R. J. Howard, M.B.O.U., and other local 

 Authorities. Svo. Pp. xxvi., 271. London: Gurney and Jackson, 1892. Price, 

 los. 6d. 



The second edition of this excellent county fauna will be heartily 

 welcomed by ornithologists. It is true we should have preferred that 

 the author himself should bring the text up to date, but, in his 

 absence, this task has been admirably performed by Mr. Howard 

 Saunders. 



The editor has left the text almost untouched, with the exception 

 of some literary blemishes, which he has taken great pains to remove. 

 He has, however, added numerous notes in brackets, many of them 

 supplied by a most competent local naturalist, Mr. R.J. Howard, of 

 Blackburn, who undoubtedly knows the avifauna of his county 

 extremely well. It is pleasant to read such notes as those which Mr. 

 Howard has contributed on hybrid Pochards {see p. 173) ; or upon the 

 Grey Geese which frequent the marshes of the Ribble estuary, ^vlr. 

 ^Mitchell's list of the birds of the county is now supplemented by hve. 

 additional species — the Purple Heron, Sociable Plover, Eared Grebe, 

 W^ilson's Petrel, and Frigate Petrel ; the last of these has just been 

 figured as a new bird to Britain in Macpherson's " Fauna of Lake- 

 land," the proof-sheets of which were placed at ]Mr. Saunders' 

 disposal. 



The great merit of this book consists in the fact that ornithologists 

 can see at a glance the salient points about almost every species 



2Z 2 



