The Naturalist. 49 



Contrast the silvery mellifluous descriptions of Mr. Mudie, 

 with the straightforward but spirited sketches of Mr. Waterton. 

 Mr. Waterton tells us of what he has really seen and heard : 

 Mr. Mudie fancies himself the bird he is describing, and looks 

 only at the bright side of the picture : for, after all, what is a 

 kingfisher, but a fish-guzzling animal, with a short tail, gaudy 

 breast, a huge beak, and a hungry belly; squatting all day long 

 upon some stump or ashen rail, and, as though utterly insensi- 

 ble to all sentimental ideas and poetical associations, choosing, 

 probably, the very one which only three days before was 

 planed smooth and round by the hands of some clod-hopping 

 carpenter, who, in sticking it bolt across the stream in any 

 but a romantic position, knew and cared as little of the 

 poets of old, who sang of the " halcyon " bird, as the shoal of 

 tiny sticklebacks besporting themselves in the brook be- 

 neath ? But not thus sees Mr. Mudie: in picturing himself as a 

 kingfisher, his imagination only dwells upon a form that flits 

 about with the radiance of a meteor and the rapidity of an 

 arrow; betaking himself, on warm stilly days, to some withered 

 branch or water-encircled stone: no matter his catching cold on 

 the one, and no fish off the other. Gratifying his appetite would 

 be quite a secondary consideration, compared with having a 

 romantic situation ; and, if even a fish did by chance fall in his 

 way, he would consider his repast finished when he had only 

 divided it in such pieces as might be swallowed. 



Zoological details clothed in the language of poetry should 

 always be received with caution, and perhaps even some de- 

 gree of distrust. Water-encircled stone chimes in with a 

 vast deal prettier effect than rail or stump ; but the instances 

 must be very rare, comparatively speaking, where a stone 

 thus encircled affords the bird that elevated position which it 

 generally selects for its watchtower. 



Some anonymous correspondent thought fit to send a 

 critique of Mr. Neville Wood's book on British song birds 

 to the Magazine of Nalural History.* Mr. Wood has, how- 

 ever, found an able champion in the reviewer to the Natiiralist, 

 who, in speaking of this work, remarks, — 



" Of the two productions of Mr. Neville Wood, both highly valuable 

 and instructive, we greatly prefer the last. It is a delightful volume ; full 

 of living portraits of our native song birds, evidently traced by the hand 

 of a man of genius and an enthusiast, — an original and an indefatigable 

 observer ; and truly refreshing to the spirit of the thorough-bred ornitho- 

 logist, whom the stale and vapid performances of the hireling compiler 

 have too frequently served only to nauseate and disgust. Deeply do we 

 marvel how an individual, so little advanced in years as Mr. Neville Wood 



* Vol. IX. p. 515., old series. We are quite ignorant of the author's 

 name. 



Vol. I. — No. I. n. s. e 



