Bibliographical Notices. 103 



when they saw that its rump and the long tail-coverts — which in 

 this species reach far down and cover the true tail-feathers — were 

 barred at all seasons of the year ; they never dreamt of limiting 

 the meaning of the word " tail " to the ten stiff- shafted rectrices. 



We have tried to find a little fault with a few passages in this 

 excellent book, lest Mr. Chapman should become surfeited with 

 eulogy, which, however deserved, has a tendency to prove unwhole- 

 some ; and a gentle corrective may be the more beneficial, inasmuch 

 as he is preparing a work on the south of Spain which cannot fail 

 to prove interesting. If he will take a little pains to condense and 

 to chasten his style he may become a very strong writer, for there 

 can be no more doubt of his powers of description than there is of 

 his general accuracy. 



Sylvan Folic: Slretclies of Bird- and Aiiimal-Life in Britain. 

 By John Watson. T. Fisher Unwin. 



This little book consists of a collection of articles, many of which 

 have, we believe, already appeared in various newspapers ; and the 

 style in which they are written is onl)' too characteristic of the 

 slipshod " copy '' considered good enough for the reader by editors 

 of the present day. The late Richard Jefferies possessed a certain 

 power of picturescpie description which captivated the public ; and, 

 as usual, a host of imitators have been for some time clutching at 

 the hem of his garment in the hope of acquiring the entire mantle 

 of his inspiration — but in vain ; for an attempt at writing crisply 

 or epigrammatically too often ends in twaddle and even in bathos. 



Mr. Watson boasts of having taken all his facts at first hand 

 from nature ; speaks of " caring little for the dry bones of 

 science, and having but scant sympathy for that species of natural 

 history which is acquired in closets ; " and adds : " We know what 

 science — or, rather, its masters — is doing for birds now-a-days. 

 'One kills them, the other writes classifying epitaphs.'" After 

 this declamation we are not surprised at being told that " the swift 

 is the last to come of all the swallows," in disregard of the fact that 

 the latter are Passeres, while the former have long been placed 

 among Picarite ; all these insect-eaters being spoken of as " hirun- 

 dines," by which we presume the author means Hirundinidae. Our 

 sympathies are vrith Mr. Watson in his desire to prevent the indis- 

 criminate destruction of birds and beasts of prey ; but his remarks 

 upon grouse-disease and the overstocking of moors indicate that he 

 is unaware of the very heavy mortality among grouse in 1815, 

 when their natural enemies were still abundant. To speak of the 

 Little Bustard as now extinct in Britain is absurd, for it never was 

 more than an accidental visitor, and has become much more 

 frequ.ent of late years. Similar ignorance is displayed respecting 

 the Great Auk, which, according to the author, was once plentiful 

 " among certain of its icy haunts ; " while the hope held out that 

 " further north, and within the arctic circle, there are still surf- 



