262



Review.



Indeed it may be thought by some to excel ; for the author, who is

his own illustrator, is thoroughly at home when painting wild fowl

and game birds, so that, as would he expected, the groups of different

species of ducks make really fine pictures, especially since many of

these birds naturally flock together, and therefore to depict several

species in this way is more according to what is actually seen in

nature than in the case of such families as warblers, thrushes, and

so on.


Looking at the plate which shows the woodpigeon, stock

dove, rock and turtle dove, as well as the sandgrouse, one can only

have figm’es of birds which one does not see closely grouped in wild

life ; but the plate with three species of Scoters and Steller’s eider

duck, and again that of pochard, widgeon, and Garganey teal, etc.

appeals as completely natural.


The frontispiece, shewing a group of great bustards, with a

pair of lapwings wheeling in the air, is very pleasing as well as

sunny, making one regret that such a scene, once common on the

Berkshire and Wiltshire downs, etc., in England, is a thing of the

past.


The plate of a male and female capercaillie in a snow covered

forest is beautifully drawn and coloured, as is also that of a group of

ptarmigan, some in autumnal and some in winter plumage. In

plate 58, a covey of partridges on sandy ground, backed by broom

and with a large bunch of thistles in down in the foreground, we

have a picture in the painting of which Mr. Thorburn is thoroughly

efficient; the pairs of red-legged partridges and common quail being

sufficiently separated in the grouping as not to confuse it.


There are also pictures of geese, storks, herons, and the like.


Altogether a volume worthy of its place in the bird-lover’s

bookshelves, along with its companions, which are perhaps there

already. H. D. A.



MORE ARTICLES NEEDED.


The Editor anxiously asks for more munitions, or the “Avi-

cultural Magazine” will have to cease firing and surrender. A fact!

As these words are being written, a groy parrot outside the



