22 Recent Literature. [ack 
dealing with the birds of Great Britain is brought to completion. The bird 
life of any country appeals to such a large number of people, that there will 
doubtless always be a demand for bird books which present the subject 
in an attractive manner. There have appeared during the last century and 
a quarter, the ‘British Birds’ of Bewick, Yarrell, Selby, MacGillivray, 
Gould, Lilford and others of lesser prominence, and some of these have 
gone through many editions, edited and amplified by ornithologists quite 
as notable as the original authors. 
Each author has approached the subject in his own manner. Some, like 
MacGillivray, have made the text their main interest, and there is little 
doubt but that Dr. Coues, who was a great admirer of MacGillivray, got 
from his writings the idea of his famous ‘Key’. Others who like our own 
Audubon were artists first and authors of necessity, have been mainly 
interested in the plates and some of them indeed did not write the text of 
their works at all. 
Mr. Thorburn belongs to this latter, artist, class and as we explained in . 
reviewing the earlier volumes of his work ! he originally intended that it 
should be simply ‘‘a sketch-book of British Birds” but was induced later 
to write a short account of each species which is admittedly largely a 
compilation. It is from the standpoint of the plates, therefore, that his 
work is to be judged and we think that on this basis it stands ahead of 
anything of the kind that has been produced. Bewick and Yarrell were 
noted for the beauty of their woodcuts, those of the former being executed 
by himself, those of the latter by Thompson. In comparing the two a 
reviewer in the ‘Report of the British Association’ for 1844 states that the 
beauty of the latter is ““much enhanced by the improvements in the prepara- 
tion of paper and ink and in the mode of taking off the impressions,” and 
adds that were Bewick’s blocks ‘‘intrusted to one of our first rate London 
printers an edition could be now produced, far superior to any which was 
issued in the lifetime of the author.” This fact must be borne in mind 
when considering the relative merits of colored plates and we think that 
Mr. Thorburn has been most fortunate in his engravers. .The softness of 
the plates and the delicate gradation of the colors we have not seen ex- 
celled in any ornithological work, and one has to look close to be convinced 
that they are really produced by the ‘half-tone’ process. While it would 
be interesting to see the paintings of some of the other British artists 
reproduced with the same excellence, we do not think that Mr. Thorburn 
would have any difficulty in holding the foremost position. He and Mr. 
Fuertes stand apart from all others except Audubon in the thoroughness 
of their knowledge of the activities and postures of the birds which they 
represent. Many an artist can paint what has been aptly termed a “‘map”’ 
of a bird, accurate in proportions, colors etc., but it is quite another thing 
to give to each bird that individuality of pose or action which characterizes 
its species, and this is what Thorburn and Fuertes have done. 
1‘The Auk,’ January, 1916, p. 84. 
