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REVIEW, 

 o THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA.— PART II. 



Knowledge so extensive and accurate as Mr. Oates's knowledge of Indian 

 ornithology often untits a man for the work of helping beginners and smatter- 

 ers, but " The Game Birds of India" shows that Mr. Gates can be popnlar 

 as well as scientific. It is in almost every respect a model of what a 

 popular vade mecum should be. Technical terms and technical matter alike 

 are absent, and even those detailed descriptions which are apt to be more 

 irksome than helpful to the ordinary reader are successfully dispensed with. 

 In dealing with the Ducks and Geese, which take up more than four-fifths 

 of this volume, Mr. Gates has first divided them into certain groups, such as 

 True Geese, True Ducks, Pochards, indicating a few external characters by 

 which each group may be distinguished ; and then he has headed the account 

 of each species with a brief note of those features in which it differs from 

 all the others of its group. In the Introduction, he states that the primary 

 character of importance among the waterfowl is undoubtedly the pattern 

 of colour presented by the primaries. Unless the point of this remark is 

 the play upon the word " Primary, " it is unfortunately expressed. Whether 

 the quill feathers of a bird are black, or grey, or a little of both, is 

 only a primary character by way cf a pun. Intrinsically it can scarcely be 

 a character of any importance at all. But it chances, in the case of the 

 Ducks and Geese, to be a very useful mark of distinction, as insignificant 

 features often are, and Mr. Gates has made much use of it. Whether his 

 signs will prove infallible in the working <jan only be decided by practical 

 experience, for the proverb that the proof of a pudding is in the eating of 

 it applies to nothing more than to books on natural history. But much con- 

 fidence may be placed in so accurate a naturalist as Mr. Gates. And when 

 the sportsman has by these simple methods identified his bird, he will not 

 only have got a name for it, but he will know almost everything that is 

 known about it. This is the most attractive feature of the book. A surprising 

 amount of information about each species bas been gathered together from 

 many sources. We learn in what parts of India it has been found, when it 

 comes and when it goes, how it behaves itself here, what it eats and how it 

 quacks and how it flies ; then we follow it to its home in Spain, or Norway, 

 or England, or the arctic regions, and learn all about the manner in which it 

 makes its nest and brings up its young. Altogether 37 species of SvFans and 

 Geese and Ducks are described. Three species, namely, the Whooper and 

 Bewick's Swans and the Bean Goose, which are included in Hume and Mar- 

 shall's book, are left out here, the evidence for their occurrence in India 

 being doubtful. Short notices are added of the species which the author 

 considers not unlikely to wander into India from neighbouring regions, a 



* " A Manual of the Game Birds of India." Part II. By E. W. Gates. A. J. Combridge 

 & Co., Bombay, 1899. 



