98 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. x. 



REvmw. 



A Bibliography of British Ornithology from the Earliest Times 

 to the end of 1912. By W. H. Mullens, M.A., LL.M., 

 F.L.S., M.B.O.U., and H. Kirke Swann. Parts I. and II., 

 pp. 1-240. London: Macmillan & Co., 1916. Price 6s. 

 net per part. 



This valuable work furnishes us with a fairly complete 

 list of all the more imj)ortant books and papers on British 

 Ornithology up to 1912. As Dr. Elliot Coues's well-known 

 Fourth Instalment of Ornithological Bibliography only gave 

 us somewhat similar information up to 1880, it is obvious 

 that some work of the kind has long been needed. 



In comparing the two books it must be remembered that 

 they are compiled on different principles. Dr. Coues's work 

 was arranged in strictly chronological order, but the writers 

 in each year were arranged in alphabetical order. In the 

 present book, the works of each author are given under one 

 head, and the names are alphabetically arranged. While 

 Dr. Coues included short notes, Messrs. Mullens and Swann 

 have been obliged to restrict their references to notes in 

 Journals which exceed a page in length, and only include 

 such authors as have published some separate work, or a 

 complete section of one. We are, however, promised, as 

 a Supplement, a geographical Bibliography, in which the 

 matter will be arranged under separate counties — a work 

 which has hitherto only been attempted in certain districts, 

 and should prove of great value to students of faunal areas. 

 Another feature of the present work is the series of bio- 

 graphical notes on each author, which must have necessitated 

 an enormous amount of research, but while they undoubtedly 

 add to the completeness of the book, many of the writers 

 have no claim whatever to be regarded as ornithologists. 



Each plan has its advantages and drawbacks. It is possible 

 to contribute short notes of real value to ornithological 

 journals for a long term of years and yet never to earn the 

 right to a place in the present work.* On the other hand, 

 we notice that one name is included on the strength of a 



* An exception has been made to this rule in the case of John 

 Gatcombe, who contributed notes of a most vahiable nature to the 

 Naturalist and Zoologist from 1851 to 1887, but the information is 

 given in the article on Mr. W. S. M. D'Urban. We think that John 

 Joseph Briggs, the foimder of the Naturalist column in the Field, and 

 a regular contributor to the Zoologist from 1843 to his death, might 

 also have been included, if only on account of a pamphlet of some 

 70 pages published by him in 18G9, entitled, " The Peacock at Rowsley," 

 which contains a good deal of ornithological matter. 



