184 New and forthcoming Ornithological Works, Sec 



YarrelFs History of British Birds, revised by Professor New- 

 ton*, was issued in June last ; and up to now three parts have 

 been published. It is needless for us to say that Mr. Newton 

 has bestowed the greatest care in his revision of this standard 

 work ; and a glance at its pages will show how much has been 

 added and altered, so as to incorporate all the most recent in- 

 formation into the text. The work is to be completed in about 

 twenty-five parts, and illustrated by 600 engravings. We have 

 only one complaint to make with reference to this important 

 work, and that concerns the slow rate at which the parts are 

 issued. In June last we were promised by the publisher the 

 second part in August, and future parts on the ist of each sub- 

 sequent month. Part II. appeared in due time, but Part III. 

 bears the date February 1872. At this rate of issue it will be 

 five years at least before the final part is completed. 



Mr. Robert Gray has recently completed his promised book 

 on the birds of West Scotland and the Outer Hebrides f- 



Mr. Gray tells us that he has been upwards of twenty years 

 collecting materials for the present work. Its chief feature 

 consists in the ample details given respecting the places where 

 each species is found within the limits of the field chosen for 

 the author's observations. In the case of stragglers, of which 

 Western Scotland has received a veiy considerable share, the 

 particulars in each instance are detailed, and in some cases a 

 description of the stranger is added. 



The method of treating such birds is in a somewhat unsettled 

 state ; and considerable hesitation is shown, though not by Mr. 

 Gray especially, whether to admit such waifs and strays into 

 our list as welcome additions or to exclude them as intruders. 

 We ourselves think that no hard line can be drawn in either 

 direction, but that outside the interests of local faunas there 

 remains a much wider question, bearing upon the modification 



* History of British Birds, Toy the late "William Yarrell. Fourth 

 edition, revised by Alfred Newton. Parts I. II. III. (Van Voorst.) 



t The Birds of the West of Scotland, including the Outer Hebrides, 

 with occasional records of the occui-rence of the rarer species throughout 

 Scotland generally. By Bobert Gray. 8vo, pp. 520. 1871, Glasgow 

 (Thomas Murray & Sons). 



