48 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. x. 



REVIEW. 



British Birds. Written and illustrated by A. Thorburn, 

 F.Z.S. With eighty plates in colour. 13 X 10^ inches. 

 4 Vols. £6 6s. net. (Longmans.) Vol. III. 1916. 



This volume of Mr. Thorburn's beautiful work contains the 

 Herons, Geese, Ducks, Pigeons and Game-birds. A good 

 deal of crowding, detracting considerably from the beauty of 

 the plates, has unfortunately been necessary to get in the 

 requisite nvimber of species, as in most cases both males 

 and females had to be depicted, and even so young plumages 

 and the eclipse plumages of the ducks have had to be omitted, 

 but this is in accordance with the plan of the work, as only 

 the fullest mature plumages have been represented throughout. 

 We notice several plates in this volume in which the reds 

 appear to us to be unnaturally brilliant, otheiwise the 

 colouring seems quite successful, but we might mention 

 that the distal portion of the bill of the Little Crake is a 

 bright grass green in nature, while the red at the base is 

 more restricted than in Mr. Thorburn's drawing, and the 

 orbital ring should be vermilion like the iris. — H.F.W. 



LETTER. 



SUPPOSED RUFOUS WARBLER IN HERTFORDSHIRE. 



To the Editors of British Birds. 



Sirs, — On February Uth, 1915, I flushed a strange bird by the 

 river Ought at West Mill, near Hitchin. Its rufous colour, spread- 

 eagled tail, and prominent white edges to same, puzzled me. The 

 species remained in doubt until the publication of Mr. Thorburn's 

 first volume of British Birds. On looking casually at his coloured 

 plates, my eye suddenly fell upon his remarkable illustration of this 

 species, and through the kindness of Dr. Hartert I have also before 

 me two specimens of Agrobates galactotes galactotes from Algeria. I 

 have no hesitation in pronouncing the bird I saw as belonging to this 

 species, as I watched it for several minutes and as it flew and alighted 

 1 had a splendid view of it through my glass, and was particularly 

 struck with the features above recorded. W. Percival Westell. 



