TOA IC) Shale 
TS 
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 
1903. 
RECENT BOOKS ON NATURAL HISTORY. 
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. Pp. xviii+223. 
(Cambridge: At the University Press, 1903.) Price 
6s. net. 
Among the Waterfowl. (The Dainty Nature Series.) 
By Herbert K. Job. Pp. xxi-+ 224; illustrated. 
(London: Wm. Heinemann, 1903.) Price 5s. net. 
Nature Biographies. (The Dainty Nature Series.) By 
Clarence Moores Weed. Pp. x+164; illustrated. 
(London: Wm. Heinemann, 1903.) Price 5s. net. 
The Brook Book. (The Dainty Nature Series.) By 
Mary Rogers Miller. Pp. xvit+241; illustrated. 
(London: Wm. Heinemann, 1903.) Price 5s. net. 
The Waterfowl Family. By L. C. Stanford, L. B. 
Bishop, and T. S. Van Dyke. Pp. x+598; illus- 
trated. (New York: the Macmillan Company; 
London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1903.) Price 
Ss. 6d. net. 
Handbook of Nature Study. For Teachers and Pupils 
in Elementary Schools. By D. Lange. Pp. xvi + 
329; illustrated. (New York: the Macmillan Com- 
pany; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1901.) 
ILLIAM TURNER, whose strong religious 
opinions entailed for him a life of many 
vicissitudes in the days of Henry VIII. and his three 
successors, had also the makings of a good ornith- 
ologist. In his voluntary and enforced absences from 
England (during which he visited many European 
countries, and formed a friendship with Conrad 
Gesner), as well as in his travels in this country, he 
gained a knowledge of the appearance and habits of 
many birds which might have enabled him to write 
a book on the subject which would have been of Sur- 
passing interest at the present day. But, like some 
modern ornithologists, he was more concerned in find- 
ing out (often with doubtful success) to what species 
of birds certain names used by certain ancient authors 
really applied. So that when in 1544 he published his 
work on ornithology, his object was primarily to deter- 
mine the principal kinds of birds named by Aristotle 
and Pliny. 
Fortunately, however, Turner could not wholly re- 
strain his natural bent for original observation, and 
here and there he added notes from his own ex- 
perience, some of which form priceless items in the 
history of the birds of this country. In so doing (as 
the editor remarks) he produced the first book on 
birds which treats them in anything like a modern 
scientific spirit. He usually tells us whether he 
observed the various species in England or abroad, 
and thus Turner may fairly be called the father of 
British ornithology. To him we owe our knowledge 
of the fact that the crane bred in English fens, while 
his account of the abundance and audacity of the kite 
in his day reminds us how easy it would be to increase 
the remnant of these birds left to us by merely letting 
NO. 1778, VOL. 69] 
| stork was nowhere to be seen in our island. 
them alone. On the other hand, he tells us that the 
He gives 
| a sufficient answer to those extreme bird-protectionists 
who contend that the hoopoe was once abundant here 
and has been exterminated, for he knew the bird well, 
and states roundly that nowhere in the whole of Britain 
is the upupa to be found. His knowledge of the habits 
| of various birds, such as the hobby, harrier, dipper, 
peewit, black tern and grey shrike (which he had seen 
not oftener than twice in England, though most 
frequently in Germany) is remarkable. 
Turner’s treatise has long been a great rarity, and 
ornithologists are much indebted to the editor and to 
the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press for 
making this early bird-book generally accessible. 
In an appendix some extracts from a work by Johr 
Caius (1570) are added, which show that Caius was a 
good observer. It is interesting to note that the great 
rook controversy was precisely in the same condition 
in the sixteenth century as it is now, and that young 
rooks were even then appreciated. 
The binding, printing, and illustrating of the 
“Dainty Nature Series ’’ justify its title, although the 
highly-glazed paper rendered necessary for the repro- 
duction of the numerous photographic illustrations 
makes the volumes very heavy to hold. Mr. Job re- 
lates his personal observations during five-and-twenty 
years in pursuit (chiefly with a camera) of the ducks, 
geese, grebes, divers, gulls, petrels, and other sea- 
fowl found in the northern and middle States and in 
Lower Canada, east of the Rocky Mountains. His 
charming work contains more new and original notes 
on these birds (both while at their breeding stations 
and in their less known winter haunts far from the 
shore) than any other book of this kind we have had 
the pleasure of reading. The illustrations are in 
advance of anything else of this kind we have seen. 
With photographs of nests and eggs we are now 
familiar. The present series is beautifully done, 
those of the ducks showing even the pattern of the 
““down.’’ But it gives us a far better idea of the 
breeding habits of these birds when we have a view 
of a huge marshy sheet of water in the Magdalen 
Islands, where wildfowl breed in crowds; and a bit 
of a “ slough,’’ showing the identical clump of rushes 
which hides a canvas-back duck’s nest, really tells us 
more of the bird’s life-history than a picture of the 
actual nest and eggs. Again, the author has obtained 
pictures at close quarters of gulls, guillemots, &c., on 
or alighting at their nests. As examples of what 
may be found in these fascinating pages, we may point 
to the pictures of the great northern diver’s floating 
nests with the surrounding scenery, grebes swimming 
about near their nests, a Franklin’s gull eating the 
eggs of the eared grebe in the nest, the owner watch- 
ing, shearwaters at sea fighting over cod livers thrown 
to them, and a petrel characteristically ‘‘ walking on 
the water.’’ No field ornithologist should be without 
this interesting book. 
In ‘“‘ Nature Biographies ”’ the lives of some every- 
day American butterflies, moths, grasshoppers, and 
flies are told and depicted in a delightful manner, the 
camera having been used most successfully in many 
ways; for instance, in showing the gradual develop- 
B 
