The Zoologist — June, 1873. 3541 



^atim at f eto §00115. 



Birds of the Hiimher District. By John Cordeaux, 232 pp. 

 post 8vo, and a frontispiece by Keulemans. Loudon : Van 

 Voorst, Paternoster Row. 1873. 



We heai- the beat 



Of their pinions fleet, 



As from the land of snow and sleet 



They seek a southern lea; 



We hear the cry 



Of their voices high, 



Falling dreamily through the sky; 



But their forms we cannot see. 



Mr. Cordeaux has executed his self-imposed task in a remark- 

 ably able and honest manner. I have expressed an opinion on 

 several occasions that the local lists of birds frequently possess 

 but little valne from their containing so small an amount of matter 

 connecting the birds with the localities; thus Harting's 'Birds of 

 Middlesex,' an excellent work of its kind, owes its interest entirely 

 to the introduction of so many passages on birds in general, but 

 which have no especial connection with Birds of Middlesex. The 

 same may be said of Mr. Sterland's 'Birds of Sherwood Forest;' 

 of Mr. Clark Kennedy's 'Birds of Berks and Bucks,' and many 

 others; but in the instance of this 'Birds of the Humber District' 

 there seems an intimate connection between the birds and their 

 habitats, and the interesting details given respecting them would 

 not apply with the same aptness to other districts, and in many 

 instances would not apply to all. Thus the remarkable immi- 

 gration of goldcrests (p. 37) and hooded crows (p. 62), both familiar 

 and infallible pioneers of the woodcock, have a local interest which 

 cannot be transferred to Berks, Bucks, Middlesex, or to Sherwood 

 Forest. The same is still more applicable to the shore birds ; it is 

 to the Humber, in an especial manner, that all the observations 

 respecting them apply ; they are nearly all indissolubly connected 

 with the Humber, and not with the other places where they also 

 perhaps make their appearance. 



It is always pleasing to find in works of this kind a full and free 

 admission of the sources whence the information has been derived, 



SECOND SERIES — VOL. VIII. 2 D 



