December 31, 1914] 



NATURE 



479 



But it is a great and a novel work ; and, if any- 

 thing-, it improved as it went on. 



Tihe coloured illustrations have been drawn 

 from life, not from stuffed specimens ; in many 

 cases long special journeys have been made to 

 distant localities to study little-known birds for 

 the purpose of this book. Photographs of nests, 

 nesting sites, etc. (two of which are reproduced 

 here), as well as a series of coloured plates of 



If the scheme of the work is new, that of the 

 larger illustrations is in keeping with it. The 

 coloured plates are not merely figures of the 

 birds, but they also tell part of their life-history. 

 VVe may instance those of the sand grouse, crested 



— the specialist in field ornithology — cannot afford 

 to ignore the experience of others in his own field, 

 and must to some extent be a compiler if he is to 

 be thorough, it is obvious that he has a great 

 advantage over the non-specialist in that his 

 knowledge enables him to value and select the 

 evidence with a confidence that cannot be felt 

 by one who is dealing with the relatively un- 

 familiar. 



These conditions and circumstances, and what { eggs of British birds, are given, 

 naturally follows from them, doubtless account < 

 for the somewhat uneven quality of the various j 

 accounts of the different families or groups of ' 

 birds which go to make up this very readable j 

 work. It is pointed out that in a work to which ! 

 there are several 

 contributors, i t 

 becomes neces- 

 sary to bring in- 

 to harmony the 

 claim of the in- 

 dividual writer to 

 express himself 

 in the way he 

 thinks best, and 

 the claim of the 

 editor to sub- 

 ordinate indivi- 

 dual treatment to 

 the general plan. 

 To strike the 

 just balance be- 

 tween the two is 

 far from easy — 

 perhaps impos- 

 sible. The tend- 

 ency in the 

 present work has 

 favoured the in- 

 dividual. The 

 gain has been a 

 vigour and fresh- 

 ness of treatment 

 that are not al- 

 ways conspicu- 

 ous in works of 

 this kind ; the 

 loss a certain 

 weakening of me- 

 thodical arrange- 

 ment which is 

 in the earlier 

 partly, however, 



\ 



V 



Fig. 2 — Vesting ground of lesser bUckbacked-goIl (Fame Islands). 



\t- . D. /s.:rK»!an. 

 From " The British Bird Book." 



more particularly apparent i grebe, the arctic tern pursued (as is its wont) by 



part of the work, owmg 

 to circumstances that were 

 neither contemplated nor desired, nor, jat the 

 time, capable of remedy. The loss, it is hoped, 

 will be practically made good by the completeness 

 of the index. Be this as it may, although some 

 of the articles may be somewhat weak, and per- 

 haps in parts fanciful, we have here, on the whole, 

 a series of excellent life-histories of our birds; 

 many of them written by experienced and accurate 

 naturalists from their personal and recent experi- 

 ence and observations. There are statements to 

 be found with which we do not agree; and it 

 would not be difficult to criticise parts of the book. 

 NO. 2357, VOL. 94] 



a skua, and the red-legged partridge struck down 

 by a peregrine. Wh^re it is the habit of the bird 

 to congregate, it is so represented, e.g. the 

 gannet, of which twenty-seven individuals appear 

 in the plate. Mr. Seaby's delightful coloured 

 studies alone are enough to give even.-one inter- 

 ested in our birds an overpowering desire to put 

 these volumes on their book-shelves. Many of 

 them will recall to the naturalist scenes which he 

 has witnessed, but, alas I has not had the power to 

 preser\^e except in memory. For in their illustra- 

 tion of bird-life no photograph will vie with the 

 coloured drawing of the skilled artist u'/jo really 

 knows his birds. Apart from the all-importance 



