206



REVIEW.


British Birds, their Nests and Eggs, Vol. II., by A. G. Butler, Ph.D.


The second volume of this popular work on British birds

contains the Orioles, Shrikes, Flycatchers, Swallows, Finches,

Buntings, Starlings, Crows and Larks, and is the pen of Dr.

Butler. It abounds (as did the former volume) with interesting

anecdotes of the writer’s experiences ; and if in some cases it

should, with more or less truth, be said that such anecdotes

‘ point to no moral,’ yet no one will deny that they ‘ adorn the

tale ’ and render full of interest what would otherwise tend to

be a dry accumulation of fads. For the more serious parts,

quotations are freely and judiciously borrowed from many well-

known writers, so that the reader is able to find the opinions of

many of the leading scientists placed side by side, and to draw

therefrom his own conclusions.


The illustrations by Mr. Frohawk are excellent and give

remarkably good likenesses of the birds, the positions being

life-like and the detail good. The coloured plates of the eggs

enable one to grasp the general appearance of the egg, but the

colouring is in some cases rather wide of the mark.


While writing of the Great Grey Shrike, Dr. Butler gives

a quotation from Herr Gatke relating the predatory habits of

this species ; but in a thickly populated country such as England,

remarks tending to cause the destruction of any species are far

better unwritten.


In treating of the Swallows, we are regaled with stories of

the author’s attempts to keep these species in confinement; and

it is greatly to be hoped that the publication of these failures

will prevent aviculturists from attempting to keep these most

delightful of birds in a cage.


In the article on the Linnet, some novel and interesting

remarks are to be found with reference to the difference in shape

in wing and tail in the sexes. These remarks will not be quite

new to the members of the Avicultural Society, as they have

been already favoured with a paper on the subject from Dr.

Butler in the Magazine, and let us hope that he will find time

to continue his investigations, and to let us know whether the

points mentioned with reference to this species hold good in

other species as well. We are glad to notice that the Doctor has

given up handrearing Linnets ; the handrearing of such birds is,

in our opinion, a practice much to be deprecated : although in



