^"'ig^^"^] Recent Literature. 207 



mer seem to consist mainly of additions to the bibliographical citations, 

 through references to the British Museum ' Catalogue of Birds.' and to the 

 new edition of ' Naumann.' The editor's important footnotes supplement 

 the text by the addition of various new facts that have been made public 

 since the publication of the original edition in 1891. As a short notice 

 of the original edition was promptly given in this journal (^'III, 1S91, 

 pp. 299, 300), and very full notices of the English translation published in 

 1895 (Auk, XII, 1895, pp. 322-346, and XIII, 1896, pp. 137-153), little 

 need be said in the present connection beyond announcing the completion 

 of this second beautifully printed edition of ' Helgoland.' — J. A. A. 



Pollard's ' Birds of my Parish.' 1 — In the great procession of popular 

 bird books that marks the present period it would seem that there is scant 

 room for originality in the case of the later claimants for attention. That 

 the field is not yet exhausted is well shown by the author of the ' Birds of 

 my Parish,' which combines in a peculiar way fresh field notes with a 

 large amount of information about the traits and behavior of captive 

 individual birds of quite a number of the commoner British species. This 

 is mixed with a deal of small talk of the imaginative order supposed to be 

 said by the birds themselves. It is all ver^- entertaining, if possibly tri- 

 vial and unimportant as ' ornithology'; but the author is so thoroughl>- in 

 sympathy with the feathered household pets thus brought before us, and 

 also so much at home with the birds in their free surroundings, that this 

 singular mixture of bird lore and ' bird talk ' is decidedly pleasant reading. 

 The scene is the "parish of Haquford in East Anglia," an area of some 

 1600 acres. "This small parish in Norfolk can boast," savs the author, 

 " to niy present knowledge of . ... 76 varieties. None of these are very 

 rare or uncommon birds, but the better one knows birds, the better one 

 loves them." Much is pleasantly said of these wild birds in the regular 

 orthodox style of ornithology, while much more is told entertainingly of 

 pet Bullfinches, Goldfinches, Chaffinches, Jackdaws, etc., sandwiched 

 with imaginary soliloquies and conversations bv the birds themselves, 

 doubtless also intended to impart information and inspire svmpathv. — 

 J. A. A. 



Collett on the Skull and Auricular Openings in North European Owls. 

 — Dr. Collett "s important paper on the asymmetry of the skull and auditory 

 structures in the Owls of Northern Europe, originally published in Nor- 

 wegian in 1881, has now been made more readily accessible to Englisli 

 readers by Dr. Shufeldt's recent translation,'-' with which the text figures 



iThe Birds | of my Parish | — | By Evelyn H. Pollard | With Illustrations 

 I — I John Lane : The Bodley Head | London and New York. MDCCCC^ 

 — Crown 8vo, pp. i-xiii, 15-295, 6 photogravure plates. Price, $1.50. 



^ Professor Collett on the Morphology of the Cranium and the Auricular 

 Openings in the North-European Species of the Family Strigidte. By R. W. 

 Shufeldt, M. D. Journ. of Morphology, Vol. XVII, No. i, 1900, pp. 1 19-176. 

 pll. xv-xx. 



