NA TURE 



693 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1915. 



ROMAK BIRDS AND AMERICAN POETS. 

 The Birds of the Latin Poets. By Prof. E. W. 

 Martin. Pp. 260. (California : Stanford Uni- 

 versity, 1914.) Price 1. 00 dollar. 



THIS book is a monument of patient industry 

 redolent rather of the midnight oil than 

 of the woods and fields. It is mainly an anthology 

 of quotations from Latin, American, and English 

 poets. As a serious contribution to our know- 

 ledge of birds, whether European or American, 

 it is not of great value, and naturalists will find 

 it disappointing. But scholars will find it useful 

 as a dictionary or concordance of Latin birds, and 

 to American nature-poets it will prove a treasury 

 of their own bird-lore. The preface should be read 

 first, to prepare the reader for its defects, which 

 to our mind are serious. "My single year in 

 Europe," says the author, "occupied largely with 

 the technique of our craft, left scant time for 

 woods, meadows, and riverside. Besides, this is 

 the task of years for a finished expert in the birds 

 of Europe." 



Not having the latter qualifications. Prof. 

 Martin is driven to illustrating the birds of Virgil 

 and Ovid by those of America — which is unsatis- 

 factory, to say the least. The species are hope- 

 lessly confused, and we are seldom helped to 

 identify them. 



"Naturally, in bringing together American and 

 Roman birds, I have attempted no close scientific 

 paralleling of species; I have rather tried to group 

 the birds which have roused similar reactions in 

 the feelings of their poetic observers. Hence 

 Roman nightingales have suggested American 

 mocking-birds and even whip-poor-wills, while 

 larks have been answered by bobolinks and star- 

 lings by meadowlarks." 



In the lengthy bibliography at the end of the 

 book several British ornithologists are mentioned, 

 but we miss the names of Yarrell and Howard 

 Saunders, and apparently Dresser's monumental 

 " Birds of Europe " has not been used at all. 



We must now make some more detailed critic- 

 isms. On p. 43 Wordsworth's line, "The tremu- 

 lous sob of the complaining owl," is quoted under 

 Bubo, the eagle-owl ; whereas he is certainly re- 

 ferring to the brown or tawny owl. Nor are we 

 told that he afterwards changed this line into "The 

 sportive outcry of the mocking owl." On p. 68 

 Tennyson's "many-wintered crow" is the rook, as 

 his next line shows. Why did not Prof. Martin 

 quote it? " Pressc gutture," so far from meaning 

 "with clear deep note," means the falsetto love- 

 note of the rook in spring (p. 75). Under Haliaeetos 

 NO. 2365, VOL. 94] 



(p. 109) no attempt is made to distinguish the sea- 

 eagle from the osprey. The Nisus and Scylla 

 myth is probably simply typical of any hawk that 

 strikes down its prey in the air. Kingsley's 

 magnificent hexameter would have been worth 

 including : " As when an osprey aloft, dark-eye- 

 browed, royally crested." 



On p. 118 we are told that "the swallow is an 

 enemy of bees, which they feed {sic) to their 

 I young." This is true, but some comment is 

 j needed. Was Tennyson right when he changed 

 i "bee" into "flv" in the well-known line, "The 

 swallow stopt as he hunted the fly " ? There is a 

 beautiful swallow legend on p. 121, which we are 

 glad to see. In the note on p. 240 the house- 

 martin's name, Hirundo urhica, is applied to the 

 swallow. In spite of his apology in the preface, 

 «e find it difficult to forgive Prof. Martin for illus- 

 trating our queen of song-birds with the whip- 

 poor-will and mocking-bird. Moreover, it is the 

 reed-warbler, and not the sedge-warbler, which is 

 called the " mock-nightingale " in England (p. 

 242). But the note on Ruscinia contains much 

 valuable matter, especially Prof. Pierantoni's 

 remarks about the Italian nightingale and the 

 poplar-tree, which is an interesting confirmation of 

 Georgic iv.^ 511. After quoting four words from 

 Coleridge on p. 131, Prof, Martin hurries on to 

 something inferior and less relevant. Surely this 

 beautiful passage was worth quoting in full : — 

 'Tis the merry nightingale 

 That crowds and hurries and precipitates 

 With thick fast warble his delicious notes, 

 As he were fearful that an .\pril night 

 Would be too short for him to utter forth 

 His love-chant, and disburthen his full soul 

 Of all its music. 



There are several quotations from Tennyson, 

 but we miss his " mellow ouzel fluting in the elm " ; 

 and his exquisite line on the ring-dove or wood- 

 pigeon is applied to the turtle-dove. .Again, his 

 line, "The fire-crowned king of the wrens," is 

 applied to the common wren ; and under the same 

 heading (Regulus) we meet with Gilbert White's 

 wood-wren, which is not a wren at all. Milvus 

 is paralleled with not only kite, but also with 

 hawk, falcon, buzzard, and even eagle. On p. 153 

 we are told that "the note of the bee-eater is like 

 that of wren and swallow." On p. 197 the same 

 quotation from the "Anthologia Latina " appears, 

 with the remark, "The wren's song is like that of 

 the bee-eater and swallow. " What this means we 

 must leave our readers to determine. 



Strix is illustrated by "the bat and owl inhabit 

 these." We are not sure that Lowell himself 

 would have recognised this illuminating excerpt 

 from his works. L'lula is said to be " the sceech- 

 owl [sic) or possibly the barn-owl." We in Eng- 



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