Bird Notes and News 



50 



naturalist. Among the species named are 

 the Kentish Plover (the remnant that 

 would have been extirpated long ago but 

 for the Society's Watchers), the Dartford 

 Warbler, the Bearded Tit, the Black Tern, 

 the Sandwich Tern, and the Marsh 

 Warbler ; and lest the excuse should be 

 raised that gifts from old collections are 

 being asked for, the circular specifically 

 states that they should be sent stuffed or 



immediately after death, and as the 

 ready-mounted are preferred the oppor- 

 tunity is taken to advertise a local firm 

 of bird-stuffers. Is it well that one 

 generic name and one handbook should 

 cover associations which prompt to bird- 

 destruction of the most mischievous kind, 

 and associations of genuine naturalists 

 which honourably strive for bird- 

 protection ? 



Books Received 



" A Bibliography of the Writings of 

 W. H. Hudson," by G. F. Wilson {Book- 

 man's Journal, 14s.). — For several years 

 past Mr. Hudson's wTitings have gradually 

 been advancing in value, not only with 

 naturalists and lovers of good literature, 

 but with that special section of the 

 book-loving world which collects first 

 editions ; and at the present moment 

 there are perhaps no publications by 

 modern writers more in demand, both 

 in this country and in the United States, 

 than some of his scarcer works and 

 those that are out of print. To all 

 such collectors Mr. Wilson's BibUography 

 will be invaluable and indispensable. 

 Now that the great writer's hand is at 

 rest for ever, it assumes a further and 

 fuller interest for all his admirers, who 

 will feel their indebtedness to the com- 

 piler. Mr. Wilson's work, though so 

 opportunely pubUshed, is no hasty or 

 hurried-up production. It has clearly 

 been with him a labour of love, and 

 he has devoted infinite care to the search 

 for early, unsigned and hitherto unknown 

 contributions to magazines of long-ago, 

 as well as to the precise format of first 

 editions of acknowledged volumes. Some 

 help was afforded by Mr. Hudson himself, 

 who furnished the clue to several anony- 

 mous or pseudonymous articles and 

 stories. Eight title-pages are given in 

 facsimile, including that of " Lost British 

 Birds," a pamphlet written for the 

 R.S.P.B., and now unobtainable in any 

 edition until the new and enlarged one 

 upon which Mr. Hudson was at work 

 at the time of his death can be issued. 



Bindings and collations are detailed with 

 great exactitude, and a brief biographical 

 note is added. The publishers have done 

 their part well, as might be expected, 

 in the matter of ty^e and general get-up. 

 In a future edition, perhaps, Mr. Hudson's 

 purely scientific papers, appearing in 

 learned societies' proceedings, might be 

 noted, though they naturally come out- 

 side the actual scope of the volume. 



" Birds in Flight," by W. P. Pycraft, 

 F.Z.S., with 12 coloured plates and 

 other illustrations by Roland Green, 

 F.Z.S. (Gay & Hancock, Ltd., 158.). 

 No attribute of the bird is more fascinat- 

 ing to the bird-lover or more deeply 

 interesting to the bird-student than that 

 of flight, and of late it has been the 

 subject of discussions innumerable in the 

 hope that some of its secrets may be 

 made to yield knowledge and help to the 

 aviator. For this technical considera- 

 tion of mechanical flight, Mr. Pycraft's 

 work, as he says in his preface, is not 

 intended ; and for this most of his 

 readers will be thankful. His aim is 

 to help those who hope to identify the 

 flying bird, not by some " ready guide," 

 which so many people seem to expect 

 and which Nature has made impossible ; 

 but by information and description which 

 will stimulate and help forward the 

 study of the genuine learner. The 

 evolution of wings, their size and shape in 

 relation to flight, modes of flight, and 

 accounts of some characteristics of flight 

 in bird famihes which will enable the 

 student to t«U birds on the wing, with 



