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 NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



A History of British Birds ; ivith Coloured Illustrations of their 

 Eggs. By Henry Seebohm. Roy. 8vo, Part I. London : 

 Porter. 1882. 



Hewitson's ' Coloured Illustrations of the Eggs of British 

 Birds,' which had reached a third edition before the author's 

 death in May, 1878, has long been the standard work on British 

 Oology. But, although the plates are excellent, and will probably 

 never be surpassed for their fidelity to Nature, it must be admitted 

 that the text as regards many species is out of date. Not only 

 do we know a great deal more about the nidification of certain 

 birds, concerning which little had been ascertained when Hewit- 

 son wrote, but several species have since been added to the British 

 list of which no mention is made in his work. The eggs of these 

 have, therefore, to be figured, and some account furnished of 

 their nidification. On this account the work recently commenced 

 by Mr. Seebohm, which will supply these desiderata, will be very 

 generally welcomed. 



We understand that this new publication will be completed in 

 six parts, issued at a guinea each to subscribers, the first part of 

 which is now before us. We are not sure that we like the 

 tinted background on which the eggs are drawn, as it seems to 

 detract from the richness of tone in some of the more highly- 

 coloured eggs, although it answers well for eggs which are pure 

 white. 



The text contains not only a description of each egg and its 

 varieties, but also a very full account of the life-history of each 

 bird. What this comprises is thus indicated by Mr. Seebohm : — 

 " The habits of the bird during the breeding season, at the two 

 periods of migration, and in winter, its mode of flight and 

 progression on the ground, in the trees or on the water, its song 

 and its various call- and alarm-notes, its food and the mode of 

 procuring it at different seasons of the year, its migrations, the 

 dates of arrival and departure, the routes it chooses and the 

 winter-quarters it selects, and above all every particular respect- 

 ing its breeding [such as choice of situation, materials of nest, 



