1917-] Recently published Ornithological Works. 97 



Geikie on the Birds of Shakespeare. 



[The Birds of Shakespeare. By Sir Archibald Geikie, O.M., K.C.B., 

 F.K.S. Pp. 1-20. Glasgow (Maclehose & Sons), 1916. Post 8vo.] 



The theme selected by Sir Archibald Geikie for a Presi- 

 dential Address to the members of the Haslemere Natural 

 History Society is a very attractive one, and will doubtless 

 be acceptable to many readers of this Journal. But to those 

 who have already devoted any attention to the subject, we 

 fear it will prove somewhat disappointing. For although 

 this little volume extends to 120 pages, we do not find that 

 it contains much criticism. In fact, the author has done 

 little more than string together a limited number of quota- 

 tions from the plays of Shakespeare, leaving his readers to 

 draw their own conclusions. This is to be regretted, for we 

 feel sure that wath his extensive knowledge of natural his- 

 tory, as manifested in so many of his own publications, 

 the accomplished ex-President of the Royal Society could 

 have written a much better book on Shakespeare's birds if 

 he had been able to devote more time to the collection 

 of materials. 



It is not a little curious, as admitted in his Preface, that 

 Sir Archibald Geikie had not seen, until too late to be of any 

 use to him, a much more extended commentary on the subject 

 which was reviewed in this Journal so long ago as 1872 

 (p. 185), wherein he might have found much to his purpose. 

 But apart from this, we should have expected to find some 

 obvious criticisms which have escaped him. To mention 

 only one. At page 89 he quotes the scene in Henry IV., in 

 which the two carriers, on arrival at the inn in Rochester, 

 complain that the Turkeys in their panniers are starved. 

 Sir Archibald Geikie has overlooked the anachronism, for 

 the Turkey was unknown in England until the later reign 

 of Henry VIII. 



On only one other point have we space to criticize, and 

 this, perhaps, is of more importance, since it will serve to 

 correct a wide-spread error which we are accustomed to see 

 repeated from time to time in the daily press. On page 41, 



SER. X. — VOL. V. a 



