QUILLS AND FEATHERS. 241 



We have left ourselves but little space for the writers of 

 to-day, who, however, are no doubt fully able for the most 

 part to call attention to their own handiwork. " The 

 Badminton Library " is an ambitious attempt to sweep 

 the board and summarize every English sport in one of 

 a series of volumes. It will never oust the fathers of the 

 craft from their places on our shelves, clever as many of its 

 writers undoubtedly are in their distinctive branches. 

 " Tegetemier on Pheasants," and " Idstone " on shooting 

 them, go hand-in-hand ; " Stonehenge " (the genial editor 

 of the Field) has written handbooks of amazing popularity ; 

 and " Wildfowler " (L. Clements) revived, for the time at 

 least, the passion for marsh and rough shooting, which, if 

 it ever becomes extinct, will do so the rather because^ there 

 are no longer any suitable spots where it can be practised, 

 than because the race of to-day lack hardihood or manliness 

 for its successful pursuit. 



In commencing this chapter I had before me a vast 

 amount of rough material in the form of endless cuttings 

 the gleanings of many months* industrious reading of book 

 lists, as well as notes from the contents of my own shelves.. 

 But it soon became obvious that to utilize even the greater 

 portion of all this crude knowledge would necessitate the 

 preparation of yet another volume to the naturalist's library 

 to accommodate it. So it was ruthlessly jettisoned ; and it 

 only remains to add a word regarding one or two useful 

 books on foreign birds. 



Of course some of the naturalist-authors mentioned in 

 the beginning may be consulted with advantage for the 

 bird life of distant countries. But few Englishmen have 

 exceeded Gould in the versatility of his knowledge on this 

 subject, or the magnificence of the works in which he em- 

 bodied it. Messrs. Southeran announce an edition of his 

 complete labours in. twenty volumes, for which they ask the 

 sum of 400 per copy ! 



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