390 Bibliographical Notices. 



BIBLIOGEAPHICAL NOTICES. 



A History of British Birds. By William Yaeeeh, V.P.L.S., F.Z.S. 



Pourth Edition, revised aod enlarged : Yols. I. & II. by Alfeed 

 Newton, M.A., F.E-.S. ; Vols. III. & IV. by Howaed Saundees, 

 E.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. (Yan Yoorsfc.) 



Of the works on ornithology which have recently appeared none 

 will be hailed with greater satisfaction than the new edition of 

 Yarrell's ' British Birds,' which has recently been brought to a 

 successful conclusion. The first edition of this standard authority 

 was completed in 1843, a second and third being subsequently 

 issued, the last in 1856 : both of them little more than reproductions, 

 with additions, of the original. 



In 1871 the publisher, with a due appreciation of the great 

 advance which had been made in ornithological knowledge, deter- 

 mined to bring out a fourth edition of this deservedly popular work, 

 embodying the information subsequently acquired. In these days, 

 however, to edit a work of this nature is no mean task, and 

 requires an ornithologist of the highest ability for its perform- 

 ance. It is not merely a repetition of previous editions, with 

 perhaps an editorial footnote here and there, but a careful revision 

 of the whole that has to be done. Every bird's history has to be 

 brought up to date ; the evidence upon which some of the rarer 

 species have been — perhaps too hastily — admitted to a place in the 

 British avifauna has to be carefully weighed, and the claims of 

 numerous aspirants to the honour minutely sifted. Indeed, owing 

 to the numerous importations which now take place, the decision 

 as to whether a bird is a truly wild one or has merely escaped — 

 in other words, whether it reached this country with or without the 

 aid of man — is one of the most unsatisfactory duties that can fall 

 to the lot of an editor. Moreover, the mass of literature that 

 has to be digested, scattered as it is through numerous publications, 

 is enough to appal any but the stoutest heart. That this was not 

 lost sight of is evident from the fact of the work being entrusted 

 to the first-named editor, than whom no one more competent to 

 undertake the task could have been found. 



Bearing in mind the systems with which the ] ublic have become 

 more or less familiar, we think that to have made violent changes 

 in the arrangement, or in any other material point, would have been 

 attended with risk of diminishing the utility of the work; and we 

 therefore consider that in adhering, in the main, to the sequence 

 of the preceding edition, Prof. Newton exercised a wise discre- 

 tion. Not that there are no changes ; far from it. For instance, 

 the old-fashioned and non-scientific reader will be astonished to 

 find that the Swifts (Cypselidse) are no longer placed with the Swal- 

 lows (Hirundinidse) nor the Golden Oriole with the Thrushes — the 

 former having been removed from the Passeres to the Picarise, and 

 the latter from the Merulidaj to the OriolidaB. These and several 

 other changes of a similar nature have been rendered imperatively 

 necessary by the light of modern research. With regard to this 



