SOME NEW BOOKS. 



Birds in a Village. By W. H. Hudson, C.M.Z.S. 8vo. Pp. 232. London: 

 Chapman and Hall, 1893. Price 7s. 6d. 



We congratulate Mr. Hudson upon the publication of this pleasant 

 volume, which is sure to receive a hearty welcome from all who like 

 graceful essays about country life. " Birds in a Village " contains 

 nothing absolutely new to us, nor is it intended in any sense as an 

 ornithological treatise. Its function is to convey to us in a singularly 

 felicitous style the impressions which the author has gathered from 

 his rambles beside English brooks and across our home commons. 

 Therein Mr. Hudson has found an agreeable variation from city life. 

 Accordingly, he introduces us to simple village folk, and interprets 

 for us their thoughts and instincts ; or sketches the picturesque details 

 of local scenery, following out his observations with such obvious 

 faithfulness of narrative that we seem to see with his eyes and to hear 

 with his ears. 



There is, it must be confessed, a large element of " twaddle " in 

 these pages; but that is such a constant ingredient of "popular" 

 books upon Natural History, that it would be absurd to quarrel with 

 it. The general public will perhaps prefer it to the enunciation of 

 scientific truth ; if it does not do much good, assuredly it is impotent 

 to do anyone an injury. We know that Mr. Hudson is at heart as 

 devoted to scientific ornithology as could be desired, and that when 

 he romances or tells a pretty fairy tale, it is only because he prefers 

 to be amusing rather than to edify us. Slight as he admits his 

 knowledge of English birds to be, his diffidence cannot conceal the 

 fact that with many of our homely birds he is thoroughly familiar, 

 and his descriptions of their idiosyncrasies are pleasant to glance 

 over. Not that Mr. Hudson discovers new points in their life-history; 

 but because, being perfectly in correspondence with his environment, 

 he plays the part of a faithful interpreter of their emotions and 

 sensations, whether occupied in studying the movements of a jay 

 amid the leafy foliage of some quiet copse, or comparing the song of 

 the hedgerow nightingale with the richer notes of the white-banded 

 mocking bird of his native country. Mr. Hudson is always certain 

 to enlist our sympathy in his patient study of the most commonplace 

 incidents. 



We differ from Mr. Hudson in one particular. We refer to his 

 tirade against the supposed enormity of keeping song-birds in 

 captivity. The most that he can say against this custom, which 

 exists all the world over, is that Mr. Rennell Rodd has protested 

 against the practice in the dainty verse which our representative at 

 Zanzibar so well understands how to frame. We have ourselves 

 derived a vast amount of pleasure from our caged pets, and having 

 enjoyed in this way the friendship of such rare and interesting forest 

 birds as the Nutcracker, or the Great Spotted Woodpecker, may 

 here register our dissent from Mr. Hudson's perfervid sentiments. 



H. A. Macpherson. 



