400 Recent Ornithological Publications. 



XLIII. — Recent Ornithological Publications. 



1. English Publications. 



We have been much pleased with Mr. Atkinson's little work on 

 "British Birds' Nests and Eggs*." It is essentially a 'Boy's 

 own book/ and well intended to train up a youthful oologist 

 in the way he should go. Tlie author has been a life-long ob- 

 server of a good school, and this is nearly sufficient for his pur- 

 pose. It is, therefore, of comparatively little moment to his 

 readers that, when he quotes from other works, his information 

 is sometimes defective. Mr. Atkinson makes no show of learned 

 acquirements, but he is far above the common run of popular 

 writers, to whom a Latin name is an abomination. After a few 

 judicious remarks on the necessity of, and the vulgar objections 

 to, anything like scientific terminology, he observes well enough 

 (p. 4), " No one was ever the worse for learning habits of orderly 

 and systematic arrangement, even though he had to pay the 

 price of doing a little puzzling headachy work, and had to 

 bother himself with a good many ugly-looking, ill-sounding, 

 jaw-cracking words." The illustrations are quite as good as 

 could have been expected for the price, but being only woodcuts 

 are not extremely characteristic. The printing we hope may be 

 improved in a future edition, when a little more care may well 

 be bestowed in hunting up later authorities than those cited. 



2. French Publications. 



It is only lately that we have succeeded in seeing a copy of 

 M. Morelet's work on the Natural History of the Azores f, which 

 is of much interest, as containing the first and only detailed ac- 

 count that has as yet been given of the zoology of this little- 

 known group of islands. True it is they have been visited by 

 several travellers, who have placed on record various facts of 

 greater or less interest concerning their geology and botany ; but 

 hardly any one, except Mr. Darwin (who touched at Terceira in 



* British Birds' Nests and Eggs, popularly described. By the Rev. J. C. 

 Atkinson, &c. Illustrated by W. S. Coleman. London : Routledge & Co., 

 18(51 . Post 8vo. pp. 120. Price One Shilling ! 



t Notice sur I'Histoire Naturelle des A9ores, suivie d'line description des 

 MoUusques terrestres de cet Archipel, par Arthur Morelet. 1 vol. 8vo. 

 Paris, 1860. 



