128 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Notes, usually under the head of distribution. The amount of emphasis 

 to be given to sub-specific distinctions is, of course, a matter of opinion, 

 with which I am not here concerned. Descriptions of rare sub-species 

 wUl be found in the Rare Bird section. 



F. B. KiRKMAN, 



Editor of the British Bird Book. 

 Letch worth, Herts. 

 August 9th, 1910, 



[Mr. Kirkman's claim that the " Classified Xotes " in the British 

 Bird Book are as much or more compressed yet contain more informa- 

 tion than the chapters in Saunders' well-known Manual is indeed a 

 bold one. My comparison was made to give the reader an idea of 

 the scope of this part of the new work and the amount of detail Ukely 

 to be found there, and on re-examination I think my statement is 

 perfectly fair and correct. I did not intend that the comparison should 

 be taken as meaning that in every particular there was less detail nor 

 that the information was the same. The comparison was instituted 

 as a criticism of the plan of the book, and ilr. Kirkman's claun of 

 compression is in reality an admission of the whole point of my criticism. 

 The need for comjDression in a single small volume like the Manual 

 is at once apparent, but why compress and thus sacrifice detail in a 

 large work of this kind ? Mr. Kirkman's claim astonishes me. If 

 space was needed, a tithe of that occupied by irrelevant discursions in 

 large type in the Finch chapter would have provided sufficient. 



With regard to the question of nomenclatiu-e, had Mr. Jourdain 

 been allowed " to go as far as he could have wished " in the matter of 

 trinomials, I am sure that I should have had no complaint to make 

 because Mr. Jovudain is in perfect agreement with me as to the im- 

 portance of the full recognition of geographical forms and the necessity 

 of their separate treatment. We cannot, however, expect too much, 

 and perhaps we should be thankful that i\Ir. Jourdain has, at all events, 

 been allowed to go so far as he has. — H.F.W.] 



