384 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
sportsmen and naturalists, but to all those who, with antiquarian 
tastes, like to know something of the past history of the county 
in which they reside, and the rural pursuits of their ancestors. 
The numerous plans and full-page illustrations with which it 
is adorned add much to its instructiveness, and betoken the 
great pains bestowed upon its production. 
Our Irish Song Birds. By Rev. Cuarues W. Benson, M.A., ° 
LL.D., Head Master of Rathmines School, Dublin. Post 
8vo, pp. 189. Dublin: Hodges & Co. 1886. 
As a contribution to a larger and more important work on 
the avifauna of Ireland, which is still much needed, Dr. Benson’s 
little book will serve a useful purpose. It cannot be said to be 
exhaustive even so far as it goes, for it is not so much a general 
history of Irish song-birds as a personal narrative of the writer’s 
experience within a comparatively limited area. 
Several species have been included which have no claim to 
be regarded as song-birds, while of others which only visit us in 
winter the song is never heard in Ireland. 
A few undoubted songsters are admitted into the list on what 
appears to us to be very slender evidence. The Nightingale, for . 
example, is one of these, and we cannot help thinking that some 
mistake must have been made in regard to locality in the case of 
the specimen preserved in the Museum at Queen’s College, Cork, 
which is said to have been procured at the Old Head of Kinsale. 
As yet we are not aware that any properly authenticated specimen 
of this bird has been obtained in any part of Iveland. 
One of the most interesting birds noticed by Dr. Benson is 
the Redstart, whose breeding in Ireland for the first time was. 
made known by him only last year. The nest was found in the 
Deer Park at Powerscourt. 
We notice here and there a want of precision in some of the 
author’s statements, as, for example, the persistent use of the 
word “variety” when “‘species” is evidently intended. It is 
well to be accurate, but we are loth to find fault with a book 
which has been designed with so good an object, and written for 
the most part from personal observation in Ireland. 
