121 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



EARLY ORNITHOLOGY.* 



For generations naturalists have been indebted to members 

 of the Gurney family for their sound and substantial contribu- 

 tions to ornithological science, but we must say that the 

 work recently issued has appealed to us more than to any 

 from the pen of a Gurney. He begins with prehistoric times — 

 refers to cave paintings, etc. (not always reliable), and then 

 takes us through the Bronze Age, and the various centuries up 

 to the eighteenth. His notes on the birds of the Bronze Age 

 might have been much more complete had he consulted the 

 books dealing with barrows of the Bronze Age, by Mortimer, 

 Bateman and others. Yorkshire and other Bronze-age tumuli 



An Early ' Bird-Marking Scheme ' ! 



have yielded at least three records of the hawk, and bones of 

 the black grouse were found by Mortimer in a Yorkshire barrow. 



MEDIEVAL BIRDS. 



But it is relating to birds of early medigeval times that Mr. 

 Gurney has collected so much quaint information from all 

 manner of sources. Early ' Household Books ' have been 

 useful, though one of the most important he does not seem to 

 have consulted, viz., ' The Northumberland Household Book,' 

 of which there are three editions, t Illustrations from these 

 records are given, and form a valuable and quaint collection ; 

 one of these the publishers kindly permit us to reproduce, 

 though we trust their bird-marking scheme is not so drastic 

 as was this method of marking swans in the fourteenth 

 century. 



* ' Early Annals of Ornithology,' by J. H. Gurney. Witherby & Co.', 

 240 pp., 12/6 net. 



■)• See ' Birds,' etc.,' used for food in the Sixteenth Century.' The 

 Naturalist, February, 1906, pp. 52-56. 



1921 April 1 



