340 



NATURE 



[August 13, 1908 



hundred illustrations are selected from Mr. Dresser's 

 ■• Birds of Europe," and the originals, of course, are 

 of the very best. But we can say very little for the 

 reproductions. We see that the old faults of this kind 

 of colour process have not, in this case at all events, 

 been overcome. Here and there one of the colours 

 used has asserted itself out of place or shown uncalled- 

 for strength. On the curlew's plumage there appears 

 a strange flush of carmine pink. This does not matter 

 much to one who has known the curlew well for 

 many years, and who knows that the colour is libel- 

 lous. But how about " the genuine seeker after 

 trustworthy information on British birds," who turns 

 to the plate in order to find out how a curlew is 

 coloured? Green, too, frequently shows itself when it 

 is not wanted; and while colours have sometimes come 

 out hard and crude, in other cases delicate tints have 

 almost failed or played false, as in the legs of the reed- 

 warbler, which do not agree in colour with the 

 description. The barn owl is curiously blue, Richard- 

 son's skua green, and the dunlin, like several others, 

 flushed with pink, while the head of the black-headed 

 gull is much too bright and light a brown. Some 

 plates are faint and indistinct. 



.Altogether we cannot regard this new colour book 

 as a success. The plates have been selected so as to 

 give examples of the most typical species. But if the 

 book was to prove of help and service to the genuine 

 seeker after trustworthy information on the subject, the 

 selection might have .been a more useful one. The 

 commonest birds have not in everv case been chosen, 

 for the blue-headed appears instead of Ray's wagtail, 

 and the mealy instead of the lesser redpoll; and it 

 would have been better in the interests of the learner 

 to carry this idea further, and to have illustrated some 

 of the less common birds rather than well-known, con- 

 spicuous, and easily identified species. For instance, 

 the blackbird, robin, goldfinch, bullfinch, chaffinch, 

 starling, jackdaw, rook, skylark, kingfisher, kes- 

 trel, grouse, &c., might more usefully have been 

 replaced by the woodlark. twite, siskin, brambling, 

 grey shrike, woodchat, merlin, hobby, the harriers, 

 shcrelark, and some of the less conspicuously coloured 

 waders and waterfowl. The guillemot in adult sum- 

 mer dress figured here is the variety known as the 

 ringed guillemot. This should have been stated in 

 order to avoid leading a beginner astray. The posi- 

 tions on the plate of the stormy and Leach's petrels 

 are wrongly stated, and should be reversed. 



The letter-press (which includes some account of 

 every species of bird which has occurred in the British 

 Islands) is of a popular .character and very pleasantlv 

 written. The charming notes of the ways and habits 

 of the birds have been taken at first hand, straight 

 from nature, and are valuable and all the more 

 interesting for that reason. But perhaps for this 

 very reason they may seem sometimes to have been 

 written from too limited a field of observation. At 

 all events, if this were not rather a publisher's than 

 an author's book, and more meant for the general 

 public than for the naturalist, we might criticise 

 some of the statements. To turn only to two species. 

 With us the hedge-sparrow's song is certainly not 



NO. 2024, VOL. 78] 



commenced in March ; nor do we think the missel- 

 thrush is so very conservative in its choice of a nest- 

 ing site, or that from four to six is the usual number 

 of eggs laid by this bird; or, again, that the missel- 

 thrush will be found sitting on a full clutch toward* 

 the end of February in Britain generally, though it 

 may lay in that month in the south. To continue 

 about the same bird; after the late Prof. Newton's 

 observations, any doubt can hardly still exist about its 

 " supposed " fondness for mistletoe berries. As no 

 attempt has been made to husband space by con- 

 densing information or avoiding occasional discursive- 

 ness, the account given of each species is not so com- 

 prehensive as one might expect to find in this bulky 

 volume, but all the birds are described, as well as the 

 eggs and nests of all except the occasional visitors. 



(3) The aim of Mr. Pycraft's book is to present the' 

 reader with a general survey of the principal groups 

 of modern birds, such as are likely to be met with 

 in zoological gardens or in museums. Of necessity 

 many of the less-known species do not find a place 

 here. In no single volume would it be possible to 

 give anything like an intelligible description of the 

 14,000 different species of known birds. The reader, 

 however, will find a concise account of some of the 

 more important facts with regard to the life-history 

 of the birds of Great Britain and of their European 

 relatives, as well as of a number of the more remark- 

 able birds of other lands. To give this in about i6o 

 pages of rather large print was, even so, to attempt 

 too much. Too much has been attempted in a small 

 space. The treatment is very slight. Those who 

 know absolutely nothing about birds will doubtless 

 learn a good deal by studying these pages; and if the 

 book wishes to claim the merit of displaying the bird- 

 world at little more than a glance, why, certainly, a 

 very long book was not required. Cheapness is a 

 great merit in a book of this kind, but may perhaps 

 be overdone. .About i6o pages of letter-press on good 

 thick paper, and thirty coloured plates, besides wood- 

 cuts, for six shillings is too much to expect, and 

 something is likely to suffer. But if the plates make 

 a critical ornithologist shudder, thev will give the 

 general reader a very fair idea of the birds they repre- 

 sent, and they are a marvel at the price. 



OVR BOOK SHELF. 



Handbook of Learned Societies and Institutions — 

 America. Pp. viii + 5g2. (Washington, D.C. : The 

 Carnegie Institution, 1908.) 

 To the Carnegie Institution a debt of gratitude is due 

 for the preparation of a handbook of the learned 

 societies and institutions of the world. The present 

 volume is the first instalment, and deals with the 

 societies of the western hemisphere, for it includes 

 the United States, Canada, Mexico, the West Indies, 

 Central and South America. 



The supervision of the work was entrusted by the 

 Carnegie trustees to the Librarian of Congress, and 

 its organisation was placed in the hands of Mr. J. 

 David Thompson, of the library staff, who has edited 

 the volume, the material having been compiled by 

 Mrs. Lucy C. Daniels Thompson and Miss Mary F. 

 Griffin. Pending decision as to further publication, 

 the remaining material relating to societies and institu- 



