dniform wltb tbe present tDolume. 



Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6s. 



THE POETS' BIRDS. 



BY PHIL ROBINSON. 



" A simply delightful book." Illustrated London News. 



"Mr. Phil Robinson's volume a book which may be described as one half 

 classified extracts from the poets, the other half a humorous defence of birds whom 

 they have neglected or maligned is a very pleasant one. The one half of Mr. 

 Robinson's book may be set against the other ; and an anthology which contains 

 poems like Shelley's 'Skylark,' and a hundred touches, at once truthful and 

 imaginative, from Keats and Byron and Burns, and many a lesser poet of the 

 country like Grahame or Leyden, more than compensates for a certain want of 

 variety in the allusions to greenfinches and crakes. But either half is very pleasant 

 reading, more especially to those who combine with a love of poetry some knowledge 

 of the woods and fields." St. James's Gazette. 



" Mr. Phil Robinson has hit upon a happy idea. . . . Throughout the book one 

 is struck both by the author's exceptional knowledge of bird-nature and by his not 

 less exceptional industry in the accumulation of material. . . . We can hardly be 

 too hearty in our praise. The work is not only of great interest but of solid useful- 

 ness. " Derby Mercury. 



" Both informative and entertaining." Scotsman. 



" Mr. Phil Robinson writes charmingly and originally in this well-filled volume. 

 His book consists mainly of extracts from English verse, strung together by certain 

 short essays or remarks in the peculiar Robinsonian style of humour. What little 

 of his own Mr. Robinson does vouchsafe us is, as usual, pretty and graceful, one half 

 close observation in natural history, the other half delicate fancy and playful solemnity 

 of his wonted mock-serious sort. There is a vast deal of genuinely valuable criticism 

 underlying most of our author's seemingly playful and extravagant strictures, and 

 rising writers of the new school, who attend so closely to all the delicate refinements 

 of form in poetry, might do worse than take a leaf out of his amusing book. It is 

 needless to add that Mr. Robinson's fowls are studied from the very life, that out of 

 the fulness of knowledge and observation his tongue has spoken words of wisdom on 

 all the feathered things from China to Peru, and from England to the Cape of Good 

 Hope. Nobody is better fitted by nature and opportunity to produce just such a 

 work, with just such a mixture of strong literary flavour, wide information, and 

 minute zoological accuracy." Pall Mall Gazette* 



" The book is decidedly entertaining, and contains much information of a useful 

 kind." Literary World. 



"A very charming book, its only fault being that it is a little too encyclopaedic in 

 character, and that its author, in his laudable desire to be absolutely exhaustive, has 

 not given us as much as we should have liked of his own original and unique humour. 

 There is no other work like this in the English language ; and dip into it where we 

 will, we are sure to find really delightful rending." World. 



"The book is remarkable both in its conception and execution, and does great 

 honour to the diligence and patient toil of one whose knowledge of English poetry 

 in its full extent can hardly be surpassed." Tablet, 



LONDON : CHATTO & WINDUS, 214 PICCADILLY, W. 



