Reviezvs.



255



REVIEWS.



FAMILIAR INDIAN BIRDS. *


That this little work now appears in its second edition is

evidence that the first has been appreciated by the Indian public;

it deals with a number of the familiar species of the country, and

contains a certain amount of original observation. The selection

of species is not always of the most judicious, and the treatment

rather uneven ; it seems, for instance, in a book for beginners,

rather unnecessary to go into details about the different species

of Terns in a work in which the very common Red-vented

Bulbul and House - Mynah, though dealt with, are not even

described. The Sparrow is not honoured with a notice, though

mentioned casually, and the common Kingfisher finds no place ;

yet local races of these two well-known British birds, one so

despised and the other so admired, are certainly familiar birds

in India. That they are well-known here too can hardly be the

author’s reason for slighting them, because he gives full notices

of the common Coot and Moorhen, without descriptions, though

a friend of his mistook Moorhens for ducks, which looks as

if description were necessary !


The book, though interesting, as most books 011 Indian

birds are at present when so comparatively little has been written

popularly on the most interesting avifauna in the world, is, as a

matter of fact, distinctly slipshod in treatment; nor are the refer¬

ences to authorities indented upon so full as might be fairly

desired. F. F.



THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS, f

When we consider that Flight is one of the main attributes

of birds, and the one to which their whole structure has been co¬

ordinated, it is perhaps strange that ornithologists have very

largely neglected to study the method by which they are able



* Familiar Indian Birds, by Gordon Dalgleish. Second edition.


London: West, Newman & Co., 1909. 2/6.


+ The Flight of Birds, by F. W. Headley, M.B.O.U. 8vo., 160pp., with 16 plates and

many text figures. London: Witherby & Co. 5/- net.



