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“ Canaries and Cage Birds,” though useful for giving a general

idea of the birds, are neither artistic nor correct.


“Foreign Finches in Captivity” has, therefore, made its

appearance at a time when it was greatly wanted, its only rivals

being a smaller and less pretentious work quite out of date, and

a number of cheap handbooks intended for beginners in the art.

The time was ripe for a work of the highest class, well-illustrated,

and such a work Dr. Butler has given us.


There is probably no other man living who could have

done what Dr. Butler has done : for no one else unites in one

person an equal knowledge of scientific ornithology and practical

aviculture. Mr. Frohawk’s illustrations add greatly to the value

of the book ; for every bird described by Dr. Butler is represented

in life size in the plates, which are coloured by hand. About

eighty species are described and figured, and many other species

are dealt with incidentally.


We cannot help wishing that an even larger number of

species had been figured, but that would, of course, have

increased the size and expense of the book.


The time for an adequate criticism of Dr. Butler’s work

has not yet arrived. Ten years hence it will be more possible.

It is not probable that Dr. Butler’s readers will agree with all his

conclusions: for in aviculture similar causes often appear to

produce different results, and the scope which it affords for

amicable controversy is one of its greatest charms. But there

can be no doubt that “Foreign Finches in Captivity” deals with

its subject in such a masterly and exhaustive manner that it is

not likely to have any competitors in the same field for many

years to come, and that, in spite of its somewhat high price, no one

who pretends to anything beyond the most superficial knowledge

of foreign seed-eaters can “ afford to be without it.”


We offer our hearty congratulations to Dr. Butler on the

successful completion of this important work.



Lloyd's Natural History.


This much advertised work is, we understand, a reprint of

“ Allen’s Naturalists’ Library.” Those parts of it which treat

of birds are from the pen of the Editor, Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe.

Unfortunately that eminent ornithologist does not shine as a

popular writer, and does not appear to possess much personal

knowledge of living birds. The consequence is that he has

written a rather dull book. The illustrations, which the pub¬

lishers have the hardihood to describe as “ magnificently coloured



