35° 



NATURE 



[September 14, igii 



THE LIVES OF BRITISH BIRDS.' 



THE third and fourth sections of this pleasant work 

 on popular British ornithology comprise the 

 dipper, the thrush family, the warblers, the hedge 

 sparrow, the starlings, the golden oriole, and the wax- 

 wing. The work is professedly and necessarily very 

 largely a compilation, and a vast amount of most 

 interesting and valuable information has been 

 gathered together from widely scattered and often 

 very inaccessible sources. This is carried out in a 

 manner deserving all praise, the more so that a refer- 

 ence is always given to the publication from which the 

 information is gleaned. Nevertheless, we sometimes 

 miss, in the accounts of some of our more familiar 

 species, the charm often found in a first-hand narra- 

 tion, and in the case of some of the articles, e.g. 

 that on the dipper, we do not find impressed upon 



a good many field naturalists whose acquaintance with 

 the species in question has been of some duration. 

 What is alluded to here as the lesser whitethroat's 

 "loud rattling call" is usually regarded as the final 

 portion of the bird's song, analogous to the bright, 

 clear, piping notes with which the blackcap — though 

 not invariably — concludes its strain. 



In the excellent article on the marsh warblers — full 

 of most interesting and valuable information — the 

 author shows that he is remarkably at home with the 

 subjects of his essay. 



Many people must have noticed the habit the robins, 

 have in winter of keeping closely to one part of the 

 garden, homestead, fields, or woodland, where they 

 mean to live through the cold weather. Mr. Kirkman 

 has gone into this matter closely, and gives in section 

 iii. an interesting account of the result of his in- 



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-Dippe 



nk projecting from the water. Kr 



them, or expressed by them, as much evidence of a 

 personal acquaintance with the subject thereof as we 

 might perhaps expect from those who undertook to 

 write such accounts of well-known British species. 



Again, one author writes, " I have not heard the 

 song ot the black redstart." This is a pity, because 

 he has to fall back upon Naumann, who must surely 

 have been prejudiced against the bird ; and conse- 

 quently no justice has been done to one of the most 

 charming of bird songs. 



In the article on the whitethroats, blackcap, and 

 garden warbler, the author writes : " Difficult as it 

 may be to distinguish between the songs of these four 

 warblers. . . ." This implied statement will surprise 



1 " The Hritish Bird Rook." Edited by F. B. Kirkman. Section iii., pp. 

 297-449 : Section iv., pp. i6q. (London and Edinburgh : T. C. and E. C. 

 J.ick, n.d.) Price ios. 6</. net each part. 



NO. 2185, VOL. 87] 



vestigations. He writes: "The robin, unlike any 

 other British winter species that I know of, is found 

 from about the end of August to the middle ot 

 February in solitary possession ot a more or less well- 

 defined feeding area, from which all others of his own 

 species are excluded. Pressure of cold weather may 

 sometimes force him to associate with his fellows in 

 order to share the crumbs put out by the charitable, 

 but he can hardly be said to suffer them gladly. He 

 is happy only when alone. Hence the old saying, 

 that ' one bush will not harbour two robins.' " From 

 August to March he kept the robins about a farm 

 under observation, and he was able at last to map 

 out their adjoining estates — a plan of which is 

 given. The boundaries of these estates, it is seen, 

 are nearly everywhere imaginary lines, and they over- 

 lap, but every robin clearly recognised to within a 



