102



Notices of Nezu Books, etc.



is searching for facts of this kind, he is not unlikely to overlook

them, and thus it is of considerable advantage for a book to be

produced by more than one author.


In the work under consideration the notices of accidental

visitors to the county are admirably complete ; and, although it

is highly probable, in the present days, when aviculturists are

legion and many foreign birds are constantly being imported

both by dealers and enthusiastic students of bird-life, that not a

few of these birds have reached our shores by the help of man ;

it nevertheless opens the door to adverse criticism if they are

ignored.


One or two points in the book perhaps call for a word or

two of comment : I am not satisfied that the Cirl Bunting is so

rare as generally supposed in North Kent. In the years during

which I nested there, I rarely missed seeing and hearing this bird

every spring. It was ijiost in evidence in a rough bit of scrub,

probably the remains of a copse, at the side of a broad rough

cart-road between two fields at Iwade. It was here I took my

first nest of the species ; subsequently I found two at Tunstallin

1884, and one at Frinstead in 1888.


When out birdsnesting with the late Dr. John Grayling

in the Stockbury Valley he called 1113'- attention to a Great Grey

Shrike flying outside a wood ; and subsequently when with the

same enthusiastic bird-lover near Dover we again saw this hand¬

some species. This will add to the number of its appearances in

Kent.


To all who are interested in our native birds I can strongly

recommend this book, as being thoroughly up to date and re¬

liable. The photogravure of a Woodcock on its nest is admirable,

and the coloured plates are in Mr. Smit’s best style. This artist

certainly does not fall into the common error of making his birds

unnaturally fat and woolly; if anything his White-spotted Blue-

throat is a trifle too thin, but the work of no artist is quite of

uniform excellence. There is a useful map of the county at the

end of the volume. A. G. B.



