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REVIEW.


A Dictionary of Bird-Notes, by Chas. Loziis Hett.

(Jackson, Market Place, Brigg. Price 2/6. y


There are, we are sure, many of our members who do not

confine their study of bird-life to the occupants of cage or aviary,

but delight to ramble " far from the madding crowd " and take

mental notes of all the birds seen or heard ; and who, amongst

these students of wild nature, has not experienced great difficulty

in identifying certain uncommon bird-notes? Perhaps an un-

common Warbler is heard singing or chirping in a hedge or

thicket, and with the greatest caution is approached ; but the

bush is far too thick to admit of the slightest view being obtained :

the bird drops like a stone into the densest part of the thicket,

and has skulked away before the observer has had a chance of

identifying it ; and he is forced to the conclusion that without

that " murderous weapon," tlie collector's gun, it is quite

impossible to identify many of the rarer species of small British

birds. Or again, as he lies awake on a warm night in Spring or

Autumn, he hears the notes of innumerable migrants as they fly

past overhead, calling loudly to one another as they pursue their

aerial course to or from their breeding quarters. How are these

birds to be identified by their notes only ?


Mr. Hett, a well-known member of our Society, has

greatly helped us in this direction by supplying us with a

complete " Dictionary" of the notes of nearly every species that

is accepted as " British" by the British Ornithologists' Union.


In the opening paragraph to the preface the Author tells

us that "bird-notes have been recorded, more or less, since the

days of Gilbert White ; but up to the present time they

have never been presented to the public in the alphabetical or

dictionary form."


The book before us may be said to consist of five parts, in

the first of which the different Notes are given in alphabetical

order, and opposite each is printed the name of the species by

which that note is uttered. Of course it must be admitted that

many bird-notes are quite incapable of being truthfully rendered

by any combination of letters ; nevertheless, the Author's

rendering of many, we might say most, of the notes is very

accurate, and conveys a very clear idea of the sounds uttered by

the different species.


The peculiar "purring" of the Nightjar does not strike

the writer as resembling chur-r-r, jarr-r-r-r-rr ; but then it is



