Recently published Ornithological Works. 1 49 



9. Evans's ' Turner on Birds.' 



[Turner on Birds : a short and succinct History of the principal Birds 

 noticed by Pliny and Aristotle, first published by Doctor William Turner, 

 1544. Edited, with Introduction, Translation, Notes, and Appendix, by 

 A. H. Evans, M.A., Clare College, Cambridge. 8vo. Cambridge, Uni- 

 versity Press. 1903. Price 6s. net.] 



Curiosity, to use no stronger word, concerning the ancient, 

 often-cited, and little-seen work of William Turner, may now 

 be easily gratified, as a reprint, with a translation and notes, 

 has been published by the Syndics of the Cambridge Uni- 

 versity Press. It would hardly be becoming in these pages 

 to speak of the Editor's treatment of his author, except to 

 remark that the temptation to annotation has been strongly 

 resisted ; but some few of the more interesting and important 

 facts which Turner tells us may be briefly mentioned. Ad- 

 vanced as he was in his opinions, he could hardly be expected 

 to be free from the prevalent fiction as to the origin of Bcrnacle 

 Geese, but there is a touch of redeeming humour in his 

 statement that he should not have believed it had he not 

 been assured of its truth on oath by an Irish divine, though 

 that divine, alas ! failed to fulfil his promise of submitting 

 proofs of the same to Turner himself. The reader is left 

 to draw the inference. Of somewhat like nature was the 

 author's interview with the old Swiss goatherd, who told of 

 the birds which not only milked his flock, but struck some 

 of them blind, though fortunately these noxious birds had 

 all flown away to carry on their evil practices in Lower 

 Germany, where they were known by a name signifying 

 (t priests." Turner got into trouble over the Bittern, though 

 he knew it well enough, mixing it up with the Pelican — 

 owing to some confusion between booming and braying, for 

 the latter was said to have the voice of an ass ; but he very 

 accurately made known to his countrymen the appearance 

 of the Stork, which they had only seen as a captive. He 

 was the first to publish a notice of the Nucifraga, which he 

 had seen in the Ilhcetic Alps, where the people well knew its 

 habits. His personal testimony to the breeding of the Crane 

 in England, " where I myself have very often seen their 



