NATURE 



241 



THURSDAY, JULY 11,, 1907. 



TUE WOLLEY COLLECTION OF BIRDS- 

 EC, OS. 



Oothcca WoUcyana, an illustrated Catalogue of the 

 Collection of Birds' Eggs formed by the late John 

 Wolley, jun. Edited from the original notes by 

 Alfred Newton. Part iv. , Alcse — Anseres; with 

 supplement and appendix, map, and three plates. 

 (London ; R. H. Porter, 1907.) Price 255. net. 



THE recent death of Prof. .Mfred Newton attaches 

 a melancholy interest to this work, which, though 

 not of a strictly scientific nature, may, in some re- 

 spects, be regarded as the magnum opus of the editor 

 and joint author; whilst his friends should at least 

 take comfort in the reflection that he was spared long 

 enough to complete it. The publication was com- 

 menced in 1S64, when part i. was issued; then sus- 

 pended for a period of thirty-eight j'ears, and recom- 

 menced in 1902, when part ii. completed the first 

 volume. Part iii. appeared in 1905, and, together with 

 the present issue, constitutes the second volume. 



Part iv. includes the divers, grebes, shearwaters, 

 SiC, and also the herons, but the most important 

 entries relate to the swans, geese, and ducks, in which 

 John Wolley took an especial interest on account of 

 the difficulty of obtaining properly identified eggs of 

 these birds. There is also a supplement and appen- 

 di.\, the latter containing the publications of Wolley 

 on natural history other than those included in the 

 text of the " Ootheca," such as papers on mammals, 

 reptiles, batrachians, and especially on insects. The 

 supplement is occupied with corrections, omissions, 

 and additions; the names of species not before in- 

 cluded being in thick type. These latter are fairly 

 numerous, and serve to bring the work up to date, 

 especially in those cases where the earlier collectors 

 had been unable to discover authentic eggs. There are 

 also some corrections in nomenclature, especially in 

 the case of the owls, some half-dozen of which re- 

 ceive different names, whether of genus or of species. 

 This reminds us of the protest of the late Dr. Bree 

 against the generic divisions of the owls. He was 

 writing of the Ural owl, which, by the way, is one 

 of the new species recorded, the editor having re- 

 ceived an egg from the Lower Danube, taken in 

 1866 ; subsequently he obtained two from Finland, as 

 recently as 1905. Again referring to the subject of 

 nomenclature, the editor deplores the necessity for 

 changing the name of Falco sacer into that of F. 

 cherrug. But Rip van Winkle rubs his eyes when he 

 finds his old friend Aquila imperialis become succes- 

 sively .1. mogilnik and .4. heliaca, and is very much 

 disposed to ask, "What next?" 



Since the " Ootheca Wolleyana " is now completed, 

 we may take a retrospective view of the entire work. 

 The editor disclaims for it any special scientific value, 

 and remarks that 



" there is no need to observe too strictly the 

 technicalities of science. The arrangement (I 

 will not call it classification) of the species named 

 is one of them. The ideal taxonomy of birds is beyond 

 the range of my vision." 



NO. 1967, VOL. 76] 



Thus he only deals with genera and species, 

 and does not further classify under families 

 and orders. It is obvious that in all works 

 uii natural history, authors are bound to adopt 

 some kind of sequence. Even the alphabetical plan 

 used in the index is not absolutely free from diffi- 

 culties, since such are the changes in genera that 

 unless one knows the name likely to have been 

 adopted, the search is apt to be troublesome. But 

 this is a minor matter, for the whole subject of the 

 classification of birds is very much in the condition of 

 the British army at the present lime, vizT, as we are 

 told. " in the melting-pot." .Are the .\ccipitres or the 

 Passeres ultimately to have precedence? 



The scope and object of the work are, however, of 

 much more importance than any questions of classi- 

 fication, and, since it relates to discoveries made 

 chiefly about the middle of the nineteenth century, 

 the present generation of ornithologists might natur- 

 ally ask for information on these points. The answer 

 would be that it is an illustrated catalogue contain- 

 ing details of the most authentic and probably one of 

 the largest collections of European and Palasarctic 

 birds' eggs that ever was made. Practically there are 

 two authors, since the contributions of the 

 editor equal, if they do not exceed, the ex- 

 tracts from the writings of Wolley himself. 

 John Wolley died in 1859, at the early age of 

 thirty-six, and shortly before his death he requested 

 that his collection of birds' eggs should be handed 

 over to his friend and companion, .Mfred Newton, who 

 likewise became his literary executor. The " Ootheca 

 Wolleyana " is therefore justly dedicated to the Rev. 

 John Wolley, of Beeston, Notts (long since deceased), 

 " as an acknowledgment of his generosity in fulfilling 

 the last wishes of his son." The sources for the com- 

 pilation of the catalogue are letters to friends, frag- 

 mentary diaries, and, above all, his " egg-book." In 

 bringing their joint contributions into notice, the 

 editor's method has been to print the observations of 

 Wolley in full-si/ed type, whilst the editorial explan- 

 ations, including references to specimens obtained 

 since 1S59, are in small type. 



It should be understood that there are practically 

 two collections, since the collection originally formed 

 by .'\lfred and Edward Newton in partnership has 

 been incorporated with the Wolley collection, and in- 

 creased by subsequent additions. For a few years 

 after his friend's decease, the editor maintained a 

 connection with some of his principal collectors in 

 Lapland, and thus continued the work which com- 

 menced in 1853. Moreover, the original collection 

 was confined to European species, but the editor has 

 chosen to extend its limits to those of the western 

 half of the Palaearctic region. Some idea of the mag- 

 nitude of the catalogue may be gathered from the 

 fact that there are, inclusive of those in the supple- 

 ment, 6076 entries or sections, consisting of one or 

 more eggs, to which a special history is attached. 

 The number of eggs in each entry ranges from one 

 to some twentv or thirty in the case of birds breeding 

 in colonies. The average may be a little over four, 

 which would give a total of about 25,000 eggs. This 



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