268 BACKHOUSE : HANDBOOK OF EUROPEAN BIRDS. 



some previous knowledge of the subject, and to those who are 

 so fortunate as to possess this knowledge it should be found a useful 

 pocket companion, enabling them to distinguish any species of 

 European bird with comparative ease and certainty, and saving the 

 necessity of carrying about from place to place a whole library of 

 ornithological literature. We have often enough ourselves felt the want 

 of a thoroughly reliable and handy guide to enable us to determine in 

 some fresh-killed example or dry skin those slight and often obscure 

 points which mark the specific differences between one bird and 

 another, and every practical ornithologist is aware how hard it is to 

 retain in the memory all these minute details so as to have them 

 ready for use when required. Mr. Backhouse has, in some 

 degree, solved the difficulty, and thereby earned the thanks of his 

 brethren. 



We are well aware that this small octavo volume of 334 pages, 

 the work of years, must have cost our author much time and labour, 

 for not only has he consulted all the best modern authorities, he 

 has also, at great trouble to himself, gone carefully through many of 

 the finest collections in the kingdom, and by an examination of the 

 skins been able to verify and correct his notes. Each species has 

 been treated separately, with a concise description of the plumage of 

 the adults in summer and winter and the young, special and charac- 

 teristic features being given in italics. A few lines are also given to the 

 distribution, also the more common haunts, of each. We are far from 

 saying that this little book is complete, or altogether without faults ; 

 from the very nature of the work this can scarcely be expected, and 

 the author admits as much in his preface. In some cases we think 

 his differentiations are not sufficiently clear, and in a few he appears 

 to have overlooked the most obvious points of distinction between 

 closely allied forms. Perhaps the paragraph on distribution and the 

 habitat, as Mr. Backhouse terms it, had better have been omitted 

 altogether ; as they stand at present they can be of little use either 

 to the practical ornithologist or the young student, and might 

 occasionally be absolutely misleading. 



In the Appendix a list of North American birds is given which 

 are stated to have occurred in Europe, and a second list of purely 

 African species which have also been recognised. For the con- 

 venience of those unacquainted with technical terms a frontispiece 

 has been introduced, illustrating the outlines of a bird, and showing 

 the names of the various parts. 



In conclusion, we sincerely congratulate Mr. Backhouse on the 

 completion of his work, and his painstaking attempt to supply along- 

 felt want of his fellow workers. — J.C. 



Naturalist, 



