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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 
Bird-Life of the Borders: Records of Wild Sport and Natural 
History by Moorland and Sea. By Aspen CHapman. 8vo, 
pp. 286. With numerous illustrations. London: Gurney 
and Jackson. 1889. 
Ir we have delayed until now to notice this very pleasantly 
written volume, it has been from no want of appreciation of its 
merits. It is the sort of book of which we should like to see a 
good many more; not a compilation from the works of other 
writers on birds, but written from the author’s personal 
experience of the border moorlands, with which as a sportsman 
and a naturalist he is evidently well acquainted. 
It has been our good fortune to spend a fortnight in May on 
a Northumbrian moor, and, after three seasons’ Grouse shooting 
upon another moor in the same county, we are able (though 
with far less experience than our author) to testify to the fidelity 
of his descriptions of the haunts and habits of moorland birds. 
In pursuit of Grouse, Plover, and Snipe we have shot over 
various moors in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, with 
“all sorts and conditions of men,” and have been struck with 
the want of acquaintance which many display with any 
birds but those which are the immediate object of pursuit. 
It seemed to us that some of them have made little use of 
their opportunities, and have failed to realize more than half the 
pleasure of a moorland walk. We can well believe that such a 
walk in company with Mr. Chapman would be a very different 
matter, and we shall be much mistaken if those who go north- 
wards in August with gun and rod do not thank him for the 
instruction they will derive from a perusal of his book. 
Nor will it be of interest only to those to whom such scenes 
are unfamiliar. Experienced sportsmen may borrow useful hints 
from the author’s narrative of success and failure, and will find 
in his descriptions many a reflection of their own experience. 
As a specimen of Mr. Chapman’s style (though to readers of 
‘The Ibis’ it must be already well known) we give a couple of 
extracts from the volume before us,—one relating to a “ game 
bird,” the other to a ‘ wildfowl.” 
