62 



JOURNAL OF THE WILD BIRD INVESTIGATION SOCIETY. 



bird collL-ctDis, many ol w hich arc richly deserved, 

 but in our opinion he takes them too seriously. 

 Their mission in life seems to be to write local 

 lists, and to add new species and sub-species to 

 the British list. The vagaries of nomenclature 

 also amuse them, and so it comes about that these 

 people term our common wren Troglodytes trog- 

 lodytes troglodytes. Should Mr. A. or Mr. B. 

 find a specimen in which the first or second pri- 

 maries of the wintj- are half a millimetre longer 

 than usual, and jierhaps with some of the tail- 



are t'oiitcnt to listen to his beautiful descriptions- 

 and woril pictures. 



A GliOGRAFHICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY C)I' BRITISH ORNI- 

 THOLOGY from the earliest times to the end of 

 1918. By W. H. Mullens, H. Kirke Swann, 

 and the Rev. F. C. I^. Jourdain. Pt. 3, pp. 

 193-288; Pt. 4, pp. 289-384; Pt. 5, pp. 385- 

 480; Pt. 6, pp. viii + 481-^58. London : 

 Witherby &: Co. 

 riir further parts of this valuable publication) 



mai.k Greue on Nest. 



coverts a shade, or half a shade, lighter or darker, 

 then \vc suppose another troglodytes will be 

 added. It would perhaps be simpler to write 

 Troglodytes'. Personally we refuse to regard 

 these people seriously or as representative of 

 British ornithologists. 



Leaving controversial matters, which Mr. 

 Hudson does not handle well, our author is seen 

 at his best in the chapters on the wood wren at 

 Wells, the secret of the willow wren, owls in a 

 villag-e, geese, and the Dartford warbler. Here 

 we have the naturalist depicting nature, and we 



fully bear out the high opinion we formed of it 

 after a perusal of Parts i and 2. No ornithologist 

 can afford to be without a copy, and every 

 Natural History Society should secure one for its 

 librarv. The beginner who consults its pag'es 

 will ha\c before him a complete list of what 

 ]3revious workers have written upon the birds of 

 the countv or district in which he may be inter- 

 ested. He will thus commence with a knowledge 

 which has hitherto been difficult and laborious to 

 obtain. 



The authors are lo be congratulated on the 



