Reviews.



93



REVIEWS.



A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BRITISH ORNITHOLOGY.


Mullens and Swann.


[A Bibliography of British Ornithology, from the Earliest limes to the end of

1912. I3j W. H. Mullens, M.A., etc., and H. Kirke Swann.


Macmillan & Co., Ltd., St. Martin’s Street, London, 1916.


Four parts of this publication have been issued, each at 6s.

net, and it will, when completed, be a most useful book of reference,

including, as it does, the biographical accounts of the principal

writers and bibliographies of their published works.


One learns many interesting facts as to the authors. Taking

for instance, under “ M,” we find that Meyer, after whom Meyers

Parrot was named, was not of that nation which has proved itself to

be the foulest fighter in the history of the civilised world, but of

Dutch extraction, his father having been several times Member for

North Holland, coming to England after the establishment of Louis

Napoleon’s Kingdom in the Low Countries, so that his son lived in

England and married an Englishwoman, By one who knew him, he

is described as “ an artist by profession and a great naturalist.” The

second issue of his ‘ Coloured Illustrations of British Birds, on large

paper, is of the utmost rarity. In the library at Welbeck Abbey

there is one of these which contains a memorandum in Meyer’s

handwriting.


In the biographical record of Morris [Rev. Francis Orpen]

we read that he has a name and place in British ornithological

history, despite the fact that the authors maintain that Morris

‘ British Birds ’ “ never occupied any very important position

among such works, and that “ he accepted records and statements

without discrimination, and consequently his work abounds in errors

and mistakes.” For all that, he must have been a hard worker.


For those who collect publications on British ornithology this

work is a valuable one for reference upon the subject.



