264 



NATURE 



[November 4, 19 15 



did not appear in the original drawing. But 

 these slight and unavoidable lapses are in this 

 case so few and so little noticeable that they do 

 not detract in any appreciable degree from the 

 beauty and accuracy of this charming series of 

 pictures of our birds. 



A characteristic of this work is that it aims at 

 including every species of bird which has occurred 

 in these islands. Other earlier works have done 

 the same. But accidental wanderers, "new to 

 the British list," occur here from 'time to time so 

 frequently that a book soon gets out of date in 

 this respect. Indeed, these additions to the 

 British list have poured in at such an astonishing 

 rate of late years, especially from one district in 

 England, that Mr. Thorburn has had the oppor- 

 tunity of figuring, for the first time, as British, 

 quite a large number of birds which have, many 

 of them unexpectedly, appeared on our list. To 

 have not merely a figure, but a beautiful coloured 

 figure of all these will be most acceptable, especi- 

 ally to those who attach any great importance to 

 these recent additions or many of them. At all 

 events, we are all glad to know what they look 

 like without referring to books perhaps not very 

 accessible. Among those birds now painted for 

 the first time as British we may mention the 

 dusky thrush, black and pied wheatears, thrush 

 nightingale, subalpine and Sardinian warblers, 

 masked shrike, and collared flycatcher; and there 

 are a good many others also. A number of birds 

 are figured on each plate, and this, giving as it 

 does an opportunity of comparing at a glance two 

 or more nearly allied species, will be a great 

 advantage to the beginner in ornithology and to 

 those not far advanced in the study of British 

 birds. And it is to these, we suppose, that the 

 book will chiefly appeal, although there will be 

 many past-masters in the art who will not be able 

 to resist the desire to possess such a beautiful 

 memorial of their favourites. 



Some appropriate plants, flowers, and branches, 

 introduced and skilfully blended in the plates, are 

 instructive as to birds' habits, and greatly add 

 to their beauty and effect. We may mention, 

 for instance, the gorse blossom about the Dartford 

 warbler and the stonechat, the rosemary on which 

 the rufous warbler is perched, and the gentian 

 by the side of the Alpine accentor ; while a yellow 

 crocus near the cock blackbird matches his orange 

 bill. Most of the birds were drawn from life, and 

 are the result of many years of studies of birds 

 from the life with this object in view. To this 

 we owe the remarkable success the author has 

 had in catching the characteristic attitudes of the 

 birds depicted. When it was not possible to 

 obtain living birds for the drawings, the author 

 has filled up the gaps from the best preserved 

 specimens he could procure. Of the letterpress 

 in this work it is not necessary to say much, be- 

 cause, as the author points out, being more 

 familiar with the brush than with the pen, it was 

 his first intention that the book should be simply 

 a sketch-book of British birds practically without 

 letterpress. But as the work proceeded he was 

 NO. 2401. VOL. 96] 



induced to write a short description of the various 

 species. Thus we have a condensed account of 

 the distribution, nest and eggs, food, song, and 

 general habits of each species. This letterpress 

 is admittedly and of necessity largely a compila- 

 tion, but the author has Inserted, in addition to 

 what has already appeared in print, such notes as 

 he has been able to add from his own and his 

 friends' observations. 



So far as we can see from the present volume, 

 the author may be congratulated on having pro- 

 duced the most accurate series of coloured figures 

 of British birds (as such), as well as quite the most 

 beautiful book on the subject, which has yet ap- 

 peared. The publishers are also to be congratu- 

 lated on the form in which it is issued. It Is 

 beautifully printed on really good paper, and the 

 plain red linen-cloth cover with a gold line Is just 

 what we should desire. O. V. A. 



SIR ANDREW NOBLE, BT., K.C.B., F.R.S. 



SIR ANDREW NOBLE, the chairman and 

 managing director of Sir W. G. Armstrong, 

 Whitworth and Co., died on October 22 at his 

 residence in Argyllshire. He was a great man 

 of business, but what was more important to his 

 country, a great scientific artilleryman. The 

 story of his scientific work is, in fact, the his- 

 tory of the development of artillery in all its 

 branches from the time of the Crimean War to 

 the present date. 



When Noble entered the Royal Artillery in' 

 1849, after passing through the Edinburgh. 

 Academy and the Royal Military Academy, Wool- 

 wich, line-of-battle ships were all sailing vessels ; 

 the heaviest gun weighed 95 cwt., and fired a 

 projectile of 68 lb. ; rifled guns did not exist, and 

 little or nothing was known of the principles of 

 internal ballistics. This state of affairs was the 

 opportunity for a clever, energetic officer with 

 distinct scientific ability, and Noble was not long 

 in forcing his way to the front. After serving 

 for a short time with Sir Edward Sabine on the 

 magnetic survey at the Cape, he became, in 1857, 

 secretary of the Royal Artillery Institution, and 

 wrote his first important paper, "On the Applica- 

 tion of the Theory of Probabilities to Artillery 

 Practice." He had in the meantime been ap- 

 pointed secretary to the Committee on Rifled 

 Cannon, and it became necessary to ascertain the 

 relative precision of fire of the various guns which 

 came before the Committee for report. This he 

 accomplished by calculating for each gun the area 

 within which it was an even chance that any one 

 shot would strike. He introduced the phrase 

 "probable rectangle," which has been one of the 

 commonplaces of artillery science ever since. 

 The method adopted was naturally that of "least 

 squares," but in applying this celebrated theory 

 he showed much scientific intuition. He cal- 

 culated separately th*^ probable errors in range 

 and deflection, and thence deduced the dimensions 

 of the rectangle. 



In 1859 Noble became secretary of the Com- 



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