NATURE 



281 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1875 



HANCOCK'S "BIRDS OF NORTHUMBERLAND 



AND DURHAM" 

 A Catalogue of the Birds of Northtimberland ana Dur- 

 ham. By John Hancock. (London : Williams ai'd 

 Norgate. Newcastle-on-Tyne : F. and W. Dodswortli, 

 1874.) 

 A STATE of expectancy in which British oinitho- 

 ■^^ legists have for some years been living has at 

 length been ended by the appearance of Mr. John Han- 

 cock's " Catalogue of the Birds of Northumberland and 

 Durham," which we lose no time in recommending to the 

 notice of such of our readers as are interested in this 

 branch of natural history. It will of course most recom- 

 mend itself to dwellers in those two counties, but it con- 

 tains besides much that concerns the lovers of birds 

 everywhere in the British Islands, and its author has our 

 warmest congratulations on the completion of his work 

 in a form so inviting ; while the Natural History Society 

 of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon- 

 Tyne, and the venerable T)neside Naturalists' Field 

 Club— at the joint expense of which it is produced — 

 deserve our heartiest thanks for its publication. 



Mr. John Hancock has long been known to some who, 

 though comparatively few in number, are perhaps best 

 able to form an opinion, as one of the closest and most 

 careful observers of birds and bird-life in this country. 

 The circle of his admirers would have been indefinitely 

 wider but for the reticence which his natural modesty has 

 for years made him keep. While others without a tithe of 

 his knowledge have ostentatiously come forward as teach- 

 ers so as to acquire a character as " celebrated ornitholo- 

 gists " out of all proportion to their ability, he has been 

 content to look on, seldom obtruding on the public any 

 of the results of his experience, and then perhaps only at 

 the earnest solicitation of some particular friend. Yet 

 this ornithological oracle of the Noith of England has 

 never been hard to consult, and the number of those who, 

 through information privately derived from him, have in 

 a manner reaped the fruit of his continual observation — 

 not always, we fear, with due acknowledgment on their 

 part — is not inconsiderable. It is, therefore, with great 

 pleasure that we find he has at last summoned courage 

 to speak for himself. As a consequence of his diflidence, 

 a good deal of what he has to tell us has oozed out 

 through other channels, but there is more than sufficient 

 novelty in the 200 and odd pages of this " Catalogue " 

 amply to repay their study, and even when facts ascer- 

 tained by him have been announced before, it is most 

 satisfactory to have the record of them here stamped by 

 his personal authority. It will be news, we take it, to 

 most people to learn that Mr. Hancock was the first who 

 recognised Bewick's Swan as a distinct species ;* and 

 we cannot but wonder that forty-five years and more have 

 been allowed to elapse before this fact was made publicly 

 known. Yet Mr. Hancock shows not the least trace 

 of annoyance at the way in which his claims have 

 been overlooked — his conduct in this respect being 



' This he did in yanuarv 1829. Pallas had described it as a variety in 

 i8ii, and it was not till Novrmhtr 1829 that YaiTell aanounced himself 

 satisfied that it was anything else. 



Vol. xr. — No. 276 



in exemplary contrast to the selfish and utterly 

 unphilosophical squabbling as to " priority " which 

 so often disgraces the votaries of all sciences. To him 

 it is enough that a discovery was made ; if important, so 

 much the better ; but, so long as knowledge has been 

 extended, it matters nothing by whose means the end was 

 attained. If we have not here a practical illustration of 

 true scientific spirit, it will be difficult to meet with it 

 anywhere. 



We are therefore somewhat at a loss how to treat the 

 work of a . man so indifferent to what is called by the 

 vulgar " fame." To pick out and here recount the various 

 discoveries which, whether before announced or not are 

 due to Mr. Hancock, would be to set at nought the 

 example given by his preaching and practice. The dis- 

 crimination of the Iceland and Greenland Falcons, a 

 question that has agitated ornithologists both here and on 

 the Continent in no common degree, was first settled by 

 Mr. Hancock in 1S54. Yet to him the chief value of the 

 discovery seems to be that it enables him to lay down the 

 general law : — 



" Not only do all the noble or true falcons acquire their 

 adult plumage in the first moult, but many of the ignoble 

 species do so likewise,as the Honey Buzzard, the Goshawk, 

 the Sparrow-hawk, and the Harriers. This fact cannot be 

 too strongly pressed on the attention of ornithologists, 

 for it leads to a correct understanding of the variations of 

 the plumage of the /^7/(V«/Vfe" (P. 10.) 



This is no mere dictum, but the result of long-continued 

 observation ; and well indeed would it be were writers, 

 who have very recently attempted to deal with this sub- 

 ject, to learn as Mr. Hancock has done, in Dame Nature's 

 simple school, instead of perpetuating error and confusion 

 by grandly setting forth their unsound and arbitrary 

 views on the " first year's," " second year's," and '' third 

 year's " plumage of birds of prey. 



The work before us is most strictly what its title pro- 

 fesses, a " Catalogue," and does not pretend to give a 

 complete history of the birds found in the two counties ; 

 in other words, to be a " Fauna" of the class. But it is 

 a catalogue conceived in no narrow spirit, for the author, 

 as the extract just given shows, is on occasion not averse 

 to add remarks having a very general bearing. To few 

 of these will our space allow us to call attention, but we 

 must especially notice the valuable " Introduction," where- 

 in, after briefly touching upon former lists of the birds of 

 the district, and comparing, not without some justifiable 

 pride, its ornithological wealth (265 species) with that of 

 Norfolk (280 or 290 species) — the richest county in this 

 respect of the whole United Kingdom — Mr. Hancock 

 gives an admirable account of the physical features of 

 Northumberland and Durham. Concise as it is, we cannot 

 here reproduce it : we must leave it to our readers, and 

 only extract a few passages : — 



'■ Our extensive seaboard lies in the direct line of the 

 annual migrations to and from the northern latitudes, and 

 is well fitted to the requirements of many species of sea- 

 fowl. The coast in many parts is bold and rocky, but is 

 agreeably varied with beautiful sandy beaches of vast 

 extent, backed with wild hummocky ' links,' and not 

 unfrequently with belts of bog and pools of sedgy water. 

 There is also no want of muddy flats or estuaries, though 

 these features are fast disappearing under the necessities 

 of commerce. 



'• The northern and western portions of the counties are 



Q 



