Recent Ornifholoyical Publicatiuns. 269 



It contains seventy plates, vepresentiug nearly as many species 

 of well-known birds, indigenous, migratory, or introduced, with 

 from two to four pages of popularly-written letterpress on each ; 

 but, unlike most of the popular works on natural history which 

 the press of our own country too often produces, this book is com- 

 paratively free from the absurd blunders to which the common 

 literary hack of the English publisher is so exceedingly prone. 

 The errors we have found in it are generally of a venial sort, 

 and none are such as to require correction at our hands. If 

 we were forced to criticise Mr. Keulemans's drawings, we should 

 say that he. was less happy in delineating the aspect of the 

 sprightly Passeres than that of other groups. None but an 

 attentive observer of live birds can fully appreciate the truth of 

 a remark made long ago in this Journal by ]\Ir. Wallace (Ibis, 

 1864, p. 41), that the apparently tritling characteristics of pecu- 

 liar attitudes and actions are often most significant in revealing 

 the true affinities of various groups of Birds ; and the vivacity, 

 or (as Prof. Lilljeborg, we suppose, would say) the irritability* 

 of the Passerine order is indeed a stumbling-block to many a 

 draughtsman who succeeds well enough with the generally 

 more staid Picarians, Accipitrines, and so forth — birds which, 

 however rapid may be their actions when searching for food, 

 yet, when perched, are wont to stand at '' attention'' like well- 

 drilled soldiers, or at most to indulge in the mechanical motions 

 of puppets on wires. Our readers must not, however, imagine 

 that we wish them to infer that all ]\Ir. Keulemans's drawings 

 of Passeres are wanting in spirit ; there is the onslaught of 

 three Fire-crested Wrens upon the relatively huge caterpillar 

 of a Sphinj), which is as lively as any one could desire. The 

 colouring of the plates is generally good, but in some over- 

 done — as in those representing the Siskin and Partridge, for 

 instance. Being a patriotic Hollander, the author of course in- 

 cludes the portrait of a Stork, and in this, we think, he has 

 been most happy : the attitude of the figure, the outlines of the 

 bill, the partly contracted toes of the poised foot, are all as true 

 to nature as is the comically-grave expression of the bird's 

 countenance. 



* Cf. Proc. Zool. Sue. 18GG, p. 7. 

 N. S. VOL. VI. U 



