96 BRITISH BIRDS. 



comings. Incidentally we note tbat Sabine's Snipe, and Larun 

 capistratvs are retained as good species ; we read that " The 

 Kittiwake is partly migratory in winter, leaving then for the 

 Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions," and the Common Tern " leaves 

 our shores in early autumn for the Faleearctic region as far as 

 Central Siberia.'^ Both of these are surprising statements 

 enough, but are only samples of similar ones that occur over 

 and over again. 



Mr. Byron's personal observations of the Birds of Thanet, 

 which form an appendix at the end of the book, are evidently 

 those of a painstaking field-naturalist, and will, no doubt, prove 

 vei'y useful to anyone essaying the task of writing the History 

 of the Birds of Kent, for as such the present volume can hardly 

 be taken as a serious attempt. We hear, however, that another 

 volume on this subject is in preparation, and we hope that we 

 may be able to extend to it a better welcome. 



N.F.T. 



History of the Collections contained in the Natural History 

 .Departments of the British Museum. Part III., Birds. By 

 R. Bowdler Sharpe. Issued by direction of the Trustees. 



This wonderfully full and painstaking history of the growth of 

 our National collection of birds and birds' eggs — the finest in the 

 world — must necessarily be of great interest to all ornithologists. 

 Dr. Sharpe divides his account into three parts. The first 

 consists of a "general sketch," in which he tells how the 

 collection originated and how it gradually grew, and how the 

 conditions of storing and exhibiting the collection were improved 

 from the time of the purchase of Colonel Montagu's collection 

 m 1816 to the present day. During Dr. Sbarpe's own term of 

 office, from 1872, the collection has grown in wonderful fashion. 

 At that date Dr. Sharpe reckons the total number of specimens 

 at 35,000, while to-day it is not less than 400,00u, a growth 

 which betokens a whole-hearted zeal on the part of the officials 

 of this department. In the second portion of the book we have 

 a chronological account of the chief accessions, while the third 

 part is devoted to an alphabetical list of the principal donors 

 and others from whom specimens have been i-eceived. This 

 latter portion of the book is perhaps the most interesting, since 

 it shows not only how splendidly the collection has been enriched 

 by such ornithologists as F. D. Godman, Allan O. Hume, R. C. 

 Wardlaw Ramsay, P. L. Selater, Henry Seebohm, the author 

 himself, and others, but also gives in fact a short biography of 

 every British ornithologist of any note. 



