Bibliographical Notices. 103 
when they saw that its ramp and the long tail-coverts—which in 
this species reach far down and cover the true tail-feathers—were 
barred at all seasons of the year; they never dreamt of limiting 
the meaning of the word ‘tail ” to the ten stiff-shafted rectrices. 
We have tried to find a little fault with a few passages in this 
excellent book, lest Mr. Chapman should become surfeited with 
eulogy, which, however deserved, has a tendency to prove unwhole- 
some; and a gentle corrective may be the more beneficial, inasmuch 
as he is preparing a work on the south of Spain which cannot fail 
to prove interesting. If he will take a little pains to condense and 
to chasten his style he may become a very strong writer, for there 
can be no more doubt of his powers of description than there is of 
his general accuracy. 
Sylvan Folk: Sketches of Bird- and Animal-Life in Britain. 
By Joun Watson. T. Fisher Unwin. 
Tuts little book consists of a collection of articles, many of which 
have, we believe, already appeared in various newspapers ; and the 
style in which they are written is only too characteristic of the 
slipshod “ copy ” considered good enough for the reader by editors 
of the present day. The late Richard Jefferies possessed a certain 
power of picturesque description which captivated the public ; and, 
as usual, a host of imitators have been for some time clutching at 
the hem of his garment in the hope of acquiring the entire mantle 
of his inspiration—but in vain; for an attempt at writing crisply 
or epigrammatically too often ends in twaddle and even in bathos, 
Mr. Watson boasts of having taken all his facts at first hand 
from nature; speaks of ‘‘caring little for the dry bones of 
science, and having but scant sympathy for that species of natural 
history which is acquired in closets ;” and adds: ‘* We know what 
science—or, rather, its masters—is doing for birds now-a-days. 
‘One kills them, the other writes classifying epitaphs.’” After 
this declamation we are not surprised at being told that “ the swift 
is the last to come of all the swallows,” in disregard of the fact that 
the latter are Passeres, while the former have long been placed 
among Picarie; all these insect-eaters being spoken of as “ hirun- 
dines,” by which we presume the author means Hirundinide. Our 
sympathies are with Mr. Watson in his desire to prevent the indis- 
criminate destruction of birds and beasts of prey; but his remarks 
upon grouse-disease and the overstocking of moors indicate that he 
is unaware of the very heavy mortality among grouse in 1815, 
when their natural enemies were still abundant. To speak of the 
Little Bustard as now extinct in Britain is absurd, for it never was 
more than an accidental visitor, and has become much more 
frequent of late years. Similar ignorance is displayed respecting 
the Great Auk, which, according to the author, was once plentiful 
“ among certain of its icy haunts;” while the hope held out that 
“ further north, and within the arctic circle, there are still surf- 
