152 Recently published Ormt/w/o/jlcul IVorks. 



Mr. Harting's ' Handbook ' of 1872 * is known to all of us. 

 He lias now re-issucd it in a much extended form, and illus- 

 trated it by a series of coloured figures of the heads of the 

 birds, prepared from the drawings of the late Professor 

 Schlegel. We have, therefore, now before us a volume 

 of 520 pages aud 35 plates. 



As in the former Avork, British Birds are divided into 

 two distinet categories — one containing *' residents, periodical 

 migrants, and annual visitants," aud the other " rare and 

 accidental visitants." Under tlie former heading are placed 

 2G2 species, under the latter 167 — making altogether 

 429 species considered as appertaining to the British Avi- 

 fauna. It is, of course, in many cases difficult to decide 

 whether certain species should be placed in the first or 

 second of these divisions, but in most cases our author seems 

 to have come to a correct d.'cision upon this point. 



A very valuable feature in the second part of Mr. 

 Harting's volume is the list of references to the records 

 of the occurrences of the " rare and accidental visitors " in 

 Britain. With the lielp of this we can find at once how 

 many times any rarity that may turn up has occurred, 

 where to look for an account of it, and, in many cases, where 

 each individual specimen has been preserved. The Rustic 

 Bunting {Emberiza rustica), for instance, has occurred three 

 times in the British area {cj'. p. 372) and refereuces are 

 given to the records of the three specimens. 



In his nomenclature and arrangement our author is 

 delightfully conservative. " Subspecies " and " homonyms " 

 are alike ignored, and the good old-fashioned names, " under- 

 standed of the people," are sternly adiiered to. It is really 

 refreshing, in these days, to find a naturalist who objects to 

 the much-adored principle of unlimited priority, and boldly 

 says: — "The increasing practice of changing well-known 

 names for new ly discovered ones on the ground of priority 1 

 regard as a misfortune to Science, for there is no finality in 

 such a proceeding and never likely to be." 



At the same time, as regards arrangement, we could not 

 * See 'Ibis,' 1872, p. 94. 



