Recent Ornithological Publications. 75 



Observations on the Singing of Birds," the subject has attracted 

 comparatively little attention. Dr. CuthbertCoUingwood^s essay* 

 is a most laudable attempt to give the matter due consideration. 

 We entirely agree with him as to the interest and importance 

 pertaining thereto, and congratulate him on his judicious treat- 

 ment of the same. We should, however, be misleading both 

 him and the public were we to pretend that our musical know- 

 ledge was sufficient to render worth having any criticisms in 

 which we might indulge respecting his '^ Improved and Corrected 

 Table of the Comparative Merits of British Song Birds." We 

 therefore abstain from doing more than recording the title of 

 this paper, which should not be neglected by any persons desirous 

 of studying this branch of ornithology. 



While French Prefefs are memorializing their Minister of the 

 Interior to add a clause to the Code Napoleon for the prevention 

 of birds'-nesting, English ornithologists are encouraging the 

 practice in this country with all their might and main. Not 

 very long ago we published some remarks on the " Suggestions 

 for forming Collections of Birds' Eggs," written by one of our 

 colleagues; and in our preceding Number we noticed Mr. Atkin- 

 son's recent little book as deserving our especial commendation. 

 Swift on the footsteps of this last comes Mr. Newman's pam- 

 phlet on * Birds'-nesting t/ reprinted from the ' Zoologist ' for 

 the past year, which the rising generation of oologists will find 

 exceedingly useful. It has, however, some drawbacks. The 

 attempt to treat birds " botanically " is, as far as we know, novel, 

 and accordingly deserves notice, though we see no pai'ticular harm 

 in it. In a professed compilation we do not, of course, look for 

 complete accuracy ; but we must express our extreme regret that 

 the author should only towards the conclusion have taken ad- 



* " Contributions to British Ornithology — The Notes of Birds. By 

 Cuthbert CoUingwood, M.A., F.L.S., &c. From the Proceedings of the 

 Liverpool Lit. and Philosophical Society. Read April 15th, 1861." 8vo, 

 pp. 26. 



t Birds'-nesting : being a complete Description of the Nests and Eggs 

 of Birds which breed in Great Britain and Ireland. By Edward Newman, 

 &c. London, 1861. (8vo, pp. 52.) Fries One Shilling. 



