Recently published Ornithological Works. 665 



Stone-CurleWj and Sheld-Drake are the most interesting; 

 while the subject of Duck Decoys is hardly less so. 



119. Millais on Surface-feeding Ducks. 



[The Natural History of British Surface-feeding' Ducks. With 

 6 photogravures, 41 coloured plates, and 25 other illustrations. By 

 J. G. Millais, F.Z.S. Longmans ; folio, 1902. Price £G 6s. net.] 



The Ducks, as many of us know, are a favourite group 

 with the author of this handsome volume. Mr. Millais, as 

 he tells us, has been engaged in the study of Ducks for the 

 past twenty years. As he is thoroughly conversant not only 

 with the bodily structure and the various plumages of his 

 specimens^ but also with the habits and manners of the 

 living birds, and has, moreover, the advantage of being 

 an artist of no mean order, we should expect good results 

 from his labours, and are not, we think, disappointed. 



But a small portion, however, of his great subject is 

 comprised in the present volume, which treats only of 

 some of the '' Surface-feeding'^ Ducks. It relates, in fact, 

 to ten species, namely, the Mallard, the Gadwall, two 

 Wigeons, the Shoveler, the Garganey, three Teals, and the 

 Pintail. All these birds are most elaborately discussed and 

 described, and the changes of plumage undergone by them 

 in both sexes and at all stages are clearly pointed out 

 and illustrated in a long series of figures. Their poses and 

 attitudes in life are mostly shown by figures in uncoloured 

 plates and others introduced in the text, which, we must 

 confess, please us more than the photographic gravures 

 intended to shew the changes of plumage. At the same 

 time we agree that the latter are well planned to prove the 

 results obtained by diligent study of this difficult part 

 of the subject. The large plates taken by the facile pencils 

 of the author and Mr. Thorburn, and printed in colours by 

 the three-colour process, are likewise extremely efiFective, 

 although Mr. Millais allows that this process has not yet 

 been brought to perfection. 



We need hardly say that besides the changes of plumage, 

 to which special attention is paid, every other part of the 

 life-history of these ten favoured Ducks is amply described 



