NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 277 



Spain. The names of the other species exhibited are:— HeUcriw Bedeli, 

 Lewis, II. punctulatus, Lucas, II. cosmosellus, Fairmaire, II. pluristriatus, 

 Fairmaire, II. setulosus, Reitter, Eretmotus sociator, Fairmaire, from 



Algeria. Hetterlus acutangulus, Lewis, //. arachnoides, Fairmaire, H. , 



n. sp., Eretmotus tan/jerianus, Marseul, from Morocco. Hetarius hispanicus; 

 lioseiih., II. marseuli, Brisout, Eretmotus Vtericus, Brisout, from Spain. 

 Hetarius ferrugineus, Oliv., from France.— 'W. W. Fowlek, Hon. Sec. 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Nulcs on the Birds of Herefordshire : contributed by Members of 

 the Woolhope Club. Collected and arranged by the late 

 Henry Graves Bull, M.D. 8vo, pp. 274. London: 

 Hamilton, Adams & Co. Hereford : Jakeman & Carver. 



On turning over the pages of this volume, the latest con- 

 tribution to the series of county "avifaunas" which it has 

 become the fashion now-a-days to write, we are forcibly reminded 

 of the old adage which refers to "too many cooks," and we 

 cannot help thinking that the reason (or, at all events, one 

 reason) why the Editor has so completely failed in his object, is 

 because he has tried to please too many contributors, and has 

 accepted all sorts of MS., good, bad, and indifferent, and far 

 too much poetry, also good, bad, and indifferent. An apt 

 quotation from the works of a genuine poet, if skilfully intro- 

 duced, is an embellishment to the text, but to string together a 

 number of quotations, a propos des bottes, and to deal them out a 

 page or two at a time (see pp. xvi— xvii, 14, 79, 82, 83, 85, 110, 

 111, &c), with hardly a line of prose to relieve the monotony, is 

 the surest way to weary the reader, and to vex the critic. 



We shall endeavour to do the authors justice, however, by 

 skipping the poetry, and by looking only at the facts which they 

 have thrown together, not very skilfully, concerning the birds 

 which have been met with in Herefordshire. And here we must, 

 unfortunately, again protest, and question the wisdom of intro- 

 ducing a large number of species which are not known to havo 

 occurred at any time in the county, and are perhaps never likely 

 to do so. It is true the names of the species in question are 

 enclosed between brackets to indicate that they have no connec- 

 tion with the county, but this being the case, it would have been 



