THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE.* 
Ar last! For a quarter-of-a-century has the writer patiently 
awaited the appearance of a monograph dealing with the birds 
of our greatest county. For the last five years he has been 
receiving prospectuses and reading notices and advertisements 
of the forthcoming ‘Birds of Yorkshire,’ and for the last five 
days he has been revelling in an advance copy of the two 
substantial volumes in which all that is known of Yorkshire 
Birds is printed. 
The Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, of which Mr. T. H. 
Nelson and his colleagues are worthy members, has done more 
than any other private society towards recording particulars of 
the fauna and flora of its area. In the present work we have 
perhaps the most substantial account of the avifauna of any 
county extant. Not only have the authors, each of whom is 
well known in the ornithological world, given us of their best, 
but in addition to their own notes and knowledge, they have 
had unlimited access to the records of a whole corps of 
ornithologists and nature lovers, as well as the most useful 
records of Thomas Allis, John Cordeaux, and numerous 
others. The ‘Naturalist,’ ‘Zoologist,’ ‘Field,’ and similar 
publications have also been conscientiously searched, the 
particulars they contain have been most religiously examined 
and sifted; the grain has been properly placed in this store- 
house, and the chaff (and there was much of it) has gone to the 
winds. In addition, full use has been made of Howard 
Saunders ‘Manual,’ Sir Ralph Payne Gallwey’s work on 
Decoys, etc. 
The method adopted with regard to each species is most 
commendable, and in future the comparative rarity of any 
species can be learned at a glance, and it is to be hoped that 
we have now heard the last of the ‘ only record for Yorkshire,’ 
which we have seen so frequently in the public press in recent 
years. After the common and scientific names of a bird, its 
status in the county is given. Then follows the first record, 
and the record given by Thomas Allis in his report presented 
to the York Meeting of the British Association in 1844. Allis’s 
records, now printed for the first time, are an exceedingly 
valuable feature of the book. Details of migration, nidification, 
* <The Birds of Yorkshire,’ by T. H. Nelson, M.B.O.U., W. Eagle 
Clarke, F.R.S.E., F.L.S., and F. Boyes. 2 vols. 899 pp., 164. plates. 
8vo., price 25/- net; 4to., price 42/- net. 
N aturalist, 
