August 2, 1897.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



191 



forth detract from its popularity, for the author is emi- 

 nently lucid, and has the knack of putting scientific facta 

 in an intelligible and popular form, our only complaint 

 being that his language is at times unnecessarily pedantic. 

 The illustrations are, however, the feature of the book ; they 

 are, in fact, magnificent. The coloured plates, although 

 very fine, are not so successful as the large number of 

 beautiful reproductions of photographs. Mr. Saville-Kent 

 has shown us before, in his '• Great Barrier Reef of Aus- 

 tralia," what an excellent photographer he is, but the 

 illustrations in his present volume in many cases surpass 

 his former efforts. By the courtesy of the publishers we are 

 enabled here to reproduce two of the smaller ones for the 

 benefit of our readers. One of these represents a North 

 Queensland "laughing jackass," one of the author's 

 numerous pets, " in the act of having killed and snapped up a 

 mouse, whose 

 delicacy of 

 flavour he is 

 anticipating 

 by meditative 

 con t empla- 

 ti on, pre 

 paratory to 

 swallowing 

 it whole." 

 This bird is 

 not the true 

 "laughing 

 jackass" (D. 

 (ji<jas) so well 

 known to 

 visitors at the 

 Zoological 

 Gardens. 

 Indeed, Mr, 

 Saville - Kent 

 is inclined to 

 think its name 

 somewhat in- 

 appropriate, 

 since "it can 

 scarcely be 

 said to laugh, 

 and its ' smile ' 

 at close 

 quarters is so 

 loud and ear- 

 piercing that 

 unsympathetic 

 neigh hours 



most micharitably defined it as a compromise between 

 the ehriek of a locomotive engine and a policeman's 

 rattle." The other photograph is of part of a tidally 

 exposed reef of a Madrepora coral. In the photograph 

 we can only get an idea of the beautiful shapes of 

 this coral, but we cannot imagine, even from the author's 

 able description, the magnificent spectacle which this 

 coral affords in its natural colours of various shades 

 of brilliant green, lilac, and brown. Nor can we form 

 any idea of the colour of corals from specimens in 

 museums and elsewhere, for the colour fades when the 

 insect dies. Altogether, this is a most interesting and 

 instructive book, and one which cannot fail to interest 

 a lay reader from beginning to end. In addition to its 

 general interest, it contains a great deal of valuable and 

 original information for specialists, and is often suggestive 

 of new or indifferently worked fields for further observation 

 and study. 



North Qiieenslaad " Laughing Jackass " (Dacelo Leachii 

 From " The Naturalist iu Australia." 



Birds of our Islamh. By F. A. Fulcher. (Melrose.) 

 Illustrated. This book deserves a lengthy review, not for 

 any value attaching to it, but in order that attention may be 

 directed to the numerous glaring errors which it contains ; 

 and this is the more important inasmuch as it has been 

 favourably reviewed, we grieve to state, in several of our 

 contemporaries. The Zoologist, for instance, considers it 

 "an excellent book to put in the hands of a bird-loving boy 

 or girl " ; and Nuture thinks much the same. We would 

 rather say, " Let the ornithologist read it, for it will amuse 

 him, but at all risks keep it out of the hands of the 

 uninitiated. ' ' The first ridiculous error which strikes one on 

 opening the book is the labelling of a beautiful drawing 

 by Mr. Thorburn of a peregrine falcon and a wild duck as 

 a " Slerlin and its Prey " (page 241). Then we have an 

 illustration of some young gallinaceous birds called by 



the authoress 

 "larks" (page 

 15),anda very 

 bad drawing 

 of a green 

 woo d pecker 

 called the 

 " great spotted 

 woodpecker" 

 (page 109), 

 while a couple 

 of whimbrels, 

 on page 199, 

 are labelled 

 "curl e ws." 

 The illus- 

 trations are 

 mostly second- 

 hand — some 

 are very good 

 and well 

 known, but 

 others are 

 mere carica- 

 tures. There 

 is a good deal 

 to be said 

 against illus- 

 trating a book 

 with drawings 

 which have 

 appeared 

 in other 

 volumes, but 

 when this 

 privilege is abused by calling the drawings by wrong 

 names the practice becomes unbearable. Turning to 

 the text, we might fill columns in pointing out its in- 

 accuracies and misstatements. Suffice to draw attention 

 to a few of these only. We are told that the swift 

 is one of the Ilimndina or swallows, and that the 

 " gannet is the whitest member of the family of geese." 

 Surely before one starts out to teach, one should know 

 at all events the ABC of the subject. Had Miss Fulcher 

 studied any standard book on birds before posing as 

 instructor of the young, she would have learnt that the 

 swifts do not belong to the swallow tribe, but to the 

 order Picari;c (woodpeckers, cuckoos, etc.), and that 

 gannets bear no relation whatever to geese, but are of the 

 same family as the cormorants, the Piiecanidw. Again, 

 we are told that " the little auk, when on rare occasions 

 it visits our shores in the winter, comes in a dress of 

 white feathers only speckled with brown, with leggings of 



fiai-aicKaxt, Photo. 



