Recent Ornithological Publications. 125 



sary to give a full description of each species included. This is 

 a work of supererogation, vvliicli might have been left out, and, by 

 the further omission of a good deal not strictly germane to the 

 matter, the space saved would have been far more usefully 

 occupied by information as to the county and the birds in their 

 special character as members of the fauna of a limited district ; 

 for of these subjects the reader knows as much or as little after 

 having read the book as he did before. For a local work, no- 

 thing is more necessary than that local knowledge which a local 

 writer only can sufficiently supply, and a local spirit ought therefore 

 to pervade the whole. The want of this last is very conspicuous 

 in Mr. Smith's volume ; and it is a poor compensation that we 

 should have instead a compilation of generalities, however in- 

 dustriously collected. Still, from the author's point of view, 

 no doubt the work is well done ; but it is a pity that his ac- 

 quaintance with the published sources of information is not more 

 extensive, since, in that case, we feel sure he would have found 

 that many of the details he gives us were so commonly known 

 as not to require repetition. We think, too, he might have 

 mentioned the ' Birds of Somersetshire,'' begun by Mr. W. D. 

 Crotch in 1851 (though we believe that one part only of that 

 work ever made its appearance), as well as the same gentleman's 

 paper on the oology of the county, contained in the ' Proceedings ' 

 of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural-History Society 

 (" Papers, &c." pp. 149-174). Mr. Smith (p. 628) says he has 

 ''been able to enumerate as many as 216 different species as 

 having been found in the county;^' but in the ' Proceedings ' of 

 the Society just mentioned (p. 27), we find a notice of a communi- 

 cation from Mr. Baker, of Bridgewater, to the effect that "-233 

 [species] have been found in Somersetshire;" a word of expla- 

 nation, therefore, as to why the larger number was not accepted 

 would have been satisfactory. The most original of Mr. Smith's 

 observations, and the best, are as to the benefits conferred on 

 agriculturists by birds ; and we are glad to see that he generally 

 makes out a good case for our favourites. 



What is nearly the most central part of the British Islands 

 has hitherto been little, if at all known to ornithologists; Messrs. 



