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REVIEW. 



liarly Annuls of Oynithology. By J. H. Gurney, F.Z.S. 

 With Illustrations from photographs and old prints. 

 I Vol. 8vo. London (H. F. & G. Witherby), 1921. 

 Some Critical Notes by W. H. Mullens, M.A., LL.M. 



Mr. Gurney has succeeded in compressing into this volume 

 of 225 pages an extraordinary amount of welcome informa- 

 tion concerning matters ornithological in bygone days, and 

 has in the course of his researches explored many literary 

 avenues with good result, but he has unfortunately failed to 

 carry out the main idea of his work, which as he tells us in 

 his preface, was " to collect all the ancient passages about 

 birds of any special interest, but more particularly those 

 which concerned British birds." This project comprised on 

 the face of it a most formidable undertaking, and one which 

 if carried to its conclusion would have resulted not in a single 

 book but in a series of volumes. The book moreover cannot 

 be treated as one of reference, paitly on account of the many 

 omissions made ; some no doubt from want of space and 

 from the many difficulties attending publication at the time 

 it appeared, and partly from the fact that the different species 

 of birds dealt with " are strung together in order of date/' 

 and consequently the passages quoted concerning them are 

 scattered through the work without order or system. The 

 index is moreover deplorably incomplete, much new matter 

 having been evidently interpolated after the first proofs had 

 been set up and the size of the book determined on. In spite 

 however of these defects we must cordialty congratulate 

 Mr. Gurney on what he has accomplished, which is to provide 

 us with a storehouse of historical and ornithological informa- 

 tion extracted from rare books and MSS. quite inaccessible 

 to the ordinary reader, and copiously illustrated with maps, 

 photographs, and careful reproductions of old plates and 

 portraits. In fact it may be said of Mr. Gurney 's Annals, in 

 the words of the "great lexicographer" — "In this work 

 when it shall be found that much is omitted, let it not be 

 forgotten that much likewise is performed."* 



In the following notes we have endeavoured in small 

 degree to supply some of the omissions in the Annals, and 

 have, at the risk of being tedious to the ordinary reader, 

 given the passages quoted, where difficult of access, in exienso, 



* Preface to Dr. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary cf the English 

 Language. 



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